$4 million gift will support 16 music fellowships

A $4 million gift from a UW–Madison alumnus has established an endowment that will fund 16 School of Music graduate fellowships in the College of Letters and Science.

The fellowships for music performance students will be known as the Paul Collins Wisconsin Distinguished Graduate Fellowships.

The gift from Paul J. Collins, a 1958 graduate of the School of Business, honors his mother, Adele Stoppenbach Collins, who graduated from the School of Music in 1929 with a degree in music performance.

“This gift reflects a combination of my interest in music and my mother’s love of music,” Collins says. “It also is a gift made in support of liberal arts education, which I believe is so important for students at the UW.”

Established in 1895, the School of Music includes many distinguished artists and faculty who attract gifted students to their studios and classrooms. The school enrolls about 450 students each year, including about 150 graduate students.

“Over time it is the quality of the students and the faculty that makes the difference,” Collins says. “These fellowships will allow the School of Music to attract more outstanding graduate students to study music at the UW–Madison.”

“This is by far the most significant gift we have ever received,” says John William Schaffer, director of the School of Music. “Our faculty includes some of the best artist-teachers in the country-and we have many outstanding students. What we’ve lacked is the financial resources to compete effectively with offers to prospective graduate students from the best private institutions.

“Paul Collins’ gift allows us to supplement and perhaps even surpass these competing offers,” Schaffer says. “It is my goal for the School of Music to become one of the top four or five public schools of music in this country. Through his gift, Mr. Collins has helped make that goal attainable.”

Collins says he was pleased that UW–Madison would supplement his gift through the Wisconsin Distinguished Graduate Fellowship program. The program, designed to attract the nation’s best and brightest graduate students, is a unique partnership between the Graduate School, the Wisconsin Alumni Association and the UW Foundation. A gift of $250,000, coupled with additional funds, provides an endowment for a full fellowship.

“Paul Collins has made a significant contribution to the College of Letters and Science,” says Phillip R. Certain, dean of Letters and Science. “His gift recognizes the importance of the liberal arts community to the campus and to our society. It also directly enriches our cultural landscape as these students perform in orchestras, ensembles, choruses and other performance organizations on the UW–Madison campus and in the greater Madison arts community and beyond.”

A resident of London, England, and Florida, Collins retired in fall 2000 after a 39-year career as an executive with Citigroup. A member of the UW Foundation board of directors, Collins recently was named vice-chairman of the upcoming Create the Future capital campaign.

He is a director of Kimberly-Clark Corporation, Genuity Inc., BG International and Nokia Corporation and previously served on the boards of the New York Philharmonic and Carnegie Hall. Collins also sits on the board of directors for the Glyndebourne Arts Trust in East Sussex, England.