Onyx Anneau President's Report 2020

Rose-Woods couple makes classroom a reality

The Mary and Bayless Butler Classroom will open in the spring of 2021 as a place for students to learn and practice science. The classroom is located adjacent to Le Fer Lake, and will serve as a hub for learning with special emphasis on environmental science and sustainability. It will also provide a new recreational space for all students as it will include a large fire pit area for gatherings.

Arthur A. and Jennie M. Bruck Scholarship at RHIT

the same year. They also invested in both the I Love Le Fer Hall initiative and provided funding for the

construction of a new outdoor classroom at The Woods. Last year, the couple supported the naming of the Bruck Flow Lab in the new Kramer Innovation Center which opened in 2019 at Morg’s alma mater. They have been committed to supporting both institutions equally. The Bruck’s gift to build the classroom helped the College fulfill a nearly nine- year-long endeavor to restore the Le Fer Lake habitat. The project began with an initial gift from the Hollie and Anna Oakley Foundation and was brought to fruition with gifts from the 181st Intelligence Wing of the Indiana Air National Guard, Duke Energy, Vectren, Indiana Wildlife Federation, Sister Mary Moloney ’61 and the Vigo County Solid Waste Management District. “The Pentateuch instructs on three tithes and, as God has blessed us, we have tried to follow these. Our church gets the first tithe and the second goes to SMWC and RHIT,” said Morg. “I am so proud of how far The Woods has come and how it continues to grow. There is a very special place in my heart for Saint Mary-of-the-Woods,” said Nancy. Nancy retired from the Dayton Metro Library after 30 years of service in 2014. Morg retired from Marathon Oil Company in 2010, after which he started his own company, Hydraulic, Measurement, and Inspection Consulting, LLC which he still runs today. The couple have four daughters and five grandchildren.

Morg and Nancy at the SMWC Senior Ball in May of 1969. Back to that blind date.

“It was truly a blind date,” recounted Morg. “We didn’t even share photos, although we talked several times on the phone. I had attended a couple of mixers at The Woods, but only in the Le Fer first floor rec room. I had never seen the Guerin rotunda, which was impressive, and to say the least, eye-opening. Then my friend Dave Crossan and I had to wait for the ladies to be informed that we were awaiting them, which seemed like an eternity. I began to wonder what I’d done.” “But, there was Nancy in an ‘Alice Blue’ cocktail dress descending the stairs. In my eyes her feet never touched marble all the way down,” said Morg with a catch in his throat and a tear in his eye. ‘Alice blue’ is a pale blue color, favored by its namesake Alice Roosevelt Longworth, daughter of Theodore Roosevelt, who helped to launch it into pop culture fame as both a fashion sensation and hit song called “Alice Blue Gown.”

Karen Dyer is the vice president for advancement and strategic initiatives at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College.

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