NOVEMBER2000
GRADS GIVE TIME AND MONEY TO FSU
Mark Hillis tells a great story that
sounds like pure Seminole romance. And it's all true.
He was a banker at SunTrust in Atlanta in 1976 and was tied up
with work when Nan Casper, who also worked at SunTrust, called
him. A recent graduate of Florida State, she was calling all
the other alums she could find at SunTrust to come to a meeting
of the Atlanta Seminole Club.
Mark met her for the first time at the meeting. She was a 1976 finance and marketing graduate, and he was a 1964 finance graduate. She is now at Bank of America, and he has been at SunTrust for 31 years.
"She got me back reinvolved with the Seminoles,"
he remembers. A little later, he took her out. They both became
deeply involved in Florida State activities and each other. Twenty
years ago, they were married.
"Some friends invited us to come back to a football game
in the early '80s," he said. "It was such a fun time...
We think of FSU as a close-knit family.
"We just find everybody we spend time with to be the
type of people we like to be involved with - from the freshmen
at FSU to President Sandy D'Alemberte."
But he and Nan have gone much further than having fun with other
grads and going to football games.
They work hard to raise money for the school, especially the
College of Business.
He is a foundation trustee and treasurer of the FSU Alumni Association, and she was an alumni trustee from 1988 to 1993.
Mark has received the FSU Circle of Gold awarded by the Alumni Association for outstanding service to the university. He is a past chairman of the College of Business Board of Directors.
"I do all that work because I just love it so much," he admitted.
And now, they have announced their plans to put $3 million in their wills to help FSU athletes, other students and faculty.
The gift will pay for 11 endowments, mostly in the College
of Business:
w $1 million for an eminent scholar chair in finance or marketing;
w $1 million for a College of Business endowment;
w $200,000 for endowed professorships in marketing and information
and management science;
w $400,000 for the already established Nancy Casper Hillis and
Mark Hillis Endowed Fund for Finance;
w Two endowments of $100,000 each for a professorship and a scholarship/fellowship
in the school or department chosen by the university president;
w $200,000 for four athletic scholarship endowments benefiting
baseball, track and field, women's basketball and the Women's
General Athletic Scholarship Fund.
"Historically, women's sports have been lacking in support,"
Nan Hillis said, "and I am into mentoring and developing
young women."
In addition, the Hillises have recently pledged $50,000 to the FSU Alumni Association's Alumni Center project.
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