Barnes and Noble Founders Donate $1 million to Spellman

A magnanimous gift to Spelman College.

Barnes & Noble founder gives Spelman College $1 million gift

The founder and chairman of Barnes & Noble Inc. and his wife have given $1 million to Spelman College in Atlanta.

The college said it planned to use the gift from Leonard and Louise Riggio to fund a scholars program in his name, and to support its planned arts and innovation center.

Leonard Riggio, founder and chairman of Barnes & Noble Inc. (center).

“From the moment I was surrounded by its warm embrace, I was head over heels in love with Spelman College, and especially with the beautiful people who study and teach there,” Riggio said of his visit to the college. “The whole of the place seems to have been lifted from the depths of our spirits, to the full realization of our hopes and dreams for a better America. If Spelman is not the paradigm of a great college, I do not know what is. The gift to the scholarship program and to the arts and innovation center from Louise and me commemorates one of the best days I’ve ever had.”

Half of the Riggios’ gift will be used to underwrite six outstanding Spelman students who have demonstrated stellar academic achievement and who are actively engaged in community service, the university said in a statement. The remaining $500,000 will be designated for the design and construction of an arts and innovation center that will house Spelman’s arts programs and Innovation Lab, which encourage creative collaborations at the intersection of the arts, technology, science and other liberal arts disciplines. Program planning for the facility is underway, according to the December announcement.

“Leonard and Louise Riggio have been longstanding supporters of education and the arts,” said Spelman President Mary Schmidt Campbell. “We welcome them as new donors to Spelman and welcome, too, their enthusiasm and faith in the values and mission of the College. Their generous gift supports the academic success of a group of talented, socially engaged students and, at the same time, helps the College launch the planning of a new facility that will encourage campus wide collaborations and community engagement.”

 

Counterfeit Money – Ray Gun on the $50?

Think this one is going to have to wait until the next time Republicans seize control of the Government. As a native Northern Virginian who has never been happy with having RayGun’s moniker slopped onto our National Airport, about the last thing I’d care to see after that is the SOB’s picture on the money.

I had seriously hoped one of the local Democrats would have proposed legislation to retun the Airport’s name to it’s proper name, and place in History as our National Airport…

But once again, it doesn’t seem any of them have the cajones.

The $50 question: Grant or Reagan?

Should Ulysses S. Grant, the legendary Union general and 18th president of the United States, be bumped from his 96-year stint on the $50 bill?

Yes, according to one North Carolina Republican.

Rep. Patrick McHenry announced that he will introduce a measure that would replace Grant’s face with Ronald Reagan’s, just in time for the 40th president’s 100th birthday next February.