MOUNT VERNON, Iowa (AP) - A Mount Vernon native and Cornell College alumnus has given $1 million to the Iowa college for a science facilities expansion.
Jerry Ringer, a retired ophthalmologist in Bloomington, Illinois, and his wife, Carole, donated the money for the college’s $35 million science facilities project. Ringer says he attended Cornell because of its reputation for pre-med studies.
The project will more than double the college’s STEM space with the construction, already under way, of the four-story Russell Science Center and renovations of West Science and portions of Law Hall. In just under two years, the college has exceeded $32 million in gifts toward the project.
Ringer is one of the longest-serving members of Cornell’s Board of Trustees, including serving as board chairman from 1999 to 2002.
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