The Virginia Western Community College
Educational Foundation presented the 2019 Community College Impact Award to Maury
L. Strauss and the Strauss Family, in recognition of his $1 million naming gift
in support of the Virginia Western
Forward Endowment Fund: A Vision of Dr. Charles W. Steger Jr. The award was
presented Wednesday at the Educational Foundation’s Annual Scholarship and Awards
Ceremony.
One of the highest honors the College can bestow, the Community
College Impact Award serves to recognize significant philanthropic and
community support by individuals, corporations or organizations that will provide
perpetuating benefits for Virginia Western, its students and the region at
large.
Virginia Western Community College
dedicated the Maury & Sheila Strauss Family Student Life Center in
January 2019 in recognition of Strauss’ visionary leadership in support of
student success and regional economic development.
“Maury
is a very special human being,” said Dr.
Robert H. Sandel, President of Virginia Western. “We
are honored to celebrate this vision of the Strauss family’s philanthropy,
which will make a true difference in our students’ lives, and will help drive a
strong future for our community.”
Strauss, founder of
Strauss Development Corp. and a longtime community benefactor,
said he believes in giving back to the community that helped build his business
and a home for his family. Virginia Western “holds a warm spot in his heart” for
the power that higher education brings to the lives of its students. Sheila
Strauss, a well-known supporter of the arts and nonprofit organizations in the
Roanoke Valley, passed away in 2016.
The $1 million gift
from the Strauss family launched the public phase of the Educational
Foundation’s unrestricted endowment initiative, the Virginia Western
Forward Endowment Fund, a vision of Dr. Charles W. Steger Jr., named in
honor of the Foundation’s late Board of Directors Chairman and President of
Virginia Tech. This unrestricted
endowment effort will flexibly empower and sustain the college to address, now
and in perpetuity, educational excellence in a rapidly-changing economic
environment.
For more information about the Foundation’s
annual Community Impact Award or the Virginia Western Forward Endowment Fund,
contact Philanthropy Director Amanda Mansfield at amansfield@virginiawestern.edu
or (540) 857-6962.