Major Gifts & Donors
Donations and Funding:
The H. J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports is being made possible through the generous donations of a number of private foundations and individuals. Although The University of Texas has provided the Center with 27,500 square feet of space, The University has not dedicated any additional funds to support the creation of the various internal exhibits or for the operating expenses of the Stark Center. The Nelda C. and H. J. Lutcher Stark Foundation of Orange, Texas helped us get this project on track with a 3.5 million dollar gift—without which UT would not have provided us with the space we needed—which is entirely dedicated to the Center’s construction. (Please see The Director’s Message for the full details of this critical gift as well as a short history of Lutcher Stark’s connections to both physical culture and sports.) We are deeply grateful to the Board of Directors of The Stark Foundation and especially to Foundation President, Walter Reidel, for their generous support of our vision.
Latest News: Joe and Betty Weider Donate Second Million to Support Stark Center Exhibits; Valuable Artifacts, Sculptures, and Paintings also Pledged
UT's President Powers met with Joe and Betty Weider at the Weider corporate headquarters this past January to thank them for their support of the Stark Center.
Dateline: July 2008
We are pleased to announce that bodybuilding legends Joe and Betty Weider, through the Joe Weider Foundation, have initiated a second million dollar gift to support the work of the H.J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports.
Earlier, in 2004, the Weider Foundation made a million dollar endowment pledge which was used to create the Joe Weider Physical Culture Fund in support of the Todd-McLean Physical Culture Collection. (The Stark Center had not been created at that time.) Endowments are gifts given to universities (or other non-profits) structured so that the gift amount is permanently invested and only the interest earned on the principal can be spent. This interest is then used for various needs—shipping, conservation materials, travel, salaries, and so on. Endowments are wonderful gifts because they mean that there will be funding in perpetuity for the project related to the endowment.
The Weider’s second million dollar gift is important in a different way, and is earmarked for the development of what we hope will be called, in their honor, The Joe and Betty Weider Museum of Physical Culture, which will reside inside the Stark Center. The Weider Museum will contain exhibits related to the history of athletic training, bodybuilding, weight training, cardiovascular conditioning, anti-aging, and other aspects of physical culture. We are also happy to announce that Joe and Betty Weider have also pledged a number of rare paintings, sculptures, and personal artifacts for display in the Joe and Betty Weider Museum of Physical Culture.
The naming of this large exhibit gallery in honor of Joe and Betty Weider is very fitting. Joe Weider is one of the most important figures in weight training and fitness in the 20th century. Beginning in 1940, Weider worked effectively to promote weight training and fitness in all its many forms. His magazine empire consisted of such titles as Muscle and Fitness, Shape, Men’s Fitness, and Flex; and he also founded multi-million dollar equipment and food supplement companies under the Weider brand. Co-founder, with his brother Ben, of the International Federation of Bodybuilders, Joe Weider is unquestionably the most important figure in the history of modern bodybuilding. Betty Weider, who began her career as a top fashion model, is recognized as one of America’s leading fitness and beauty icons. It was Betty Weider who provided the inspiration for the very successful women’s magazine, Shape, and in that magazine and other publications she has frequently contributed hundreds of articles on health, fitness, and beauty. Both Joe and Betty Weider have also published numerous books related to bodybuilding and fitness.
Recent News: Terry and Jan Todd Provide $100,000 to Found Stark Center Book Series
Dateline: June 2008
Stark Center co-directors Terry and Jan Todd recently pledged $100,000 to create the Todd Physical Culture and Sports Book Series in conjunction with University of Texas Press. The aim of the endowment is to promote research and scholarship in areas related to the holdings of the Stark Center through the publication of both academic and popular books in the fields of physical culture and sports. Several manuscripts are under consideration for inclusion in the new series, and one manuscript has already been formally submitted to UT Press. The endowment will support the publication, in perpetuity, of as many as three books a year bearing the Todd Series/Stark Center imprint. For more information on the book series, including submission instructions, please open this link.
Major Donors:
Roy J. McLean
Roy J. McLean Fellowship in Sport History
In 1983, when Terry and Jan Todd joined the faculty at UT and brought with them their extensive personal collection of books and materials (which included the Ottley Coulter Collection), retired UT physical education professor Roy J. McLean [see Director’s Message] decided to set up an endowment fund to help support the Todds in their dream of creating a public research library in this field. At that time, The University of Texas had a “matching program” in place and so Professor McLean’s $50,000 donation was matched by UT and became a $100,000 endowment. That donation created the Roy J. McLean Fellowship in Sport History, which—thanks to a subsequent gift from Professor McLean’s widow, Nelda McLean; a donation from Midland, Texas, oil executive, Doyle Hartman; and The University’s investment policies has now grown to over $700,000. Like the Weider Physical Culture Fund, only a portion of the interest earned on this account can be used each year, but it has been a very great help for 25 years. Roy J. McLean contributed in many ways to sports and fitness while teaching at The University of Texas. In 2007, Roy J. McLean was inducted into UT's Department of Kinesiology and Health Education's Hall of Honor (click on link to see more information) for his service.
The George F. Jowett Scholarship Fund
Following the death of George F. Jowett's daughter, Phyllis Jowett, we received word that she had left a $15,000 bequest in her will to create a scholarship in her father’s name. (Click here to read an article in Iron Game History concerning this gift.) Jowett is one of the founding fathers of North American weightlifting and one of the most prolific physical culture authors of the early twentieth century. The Jowett scholarship is used to support a student studying some aspect of fitness in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education here at The University of Texas at Austin.
The Hoffman Family Foundation Gift
In 2006, Adelyn Hoffman and her son, Dr. Richard Hoffman, gave the Stark Center a 1600-volume collection of golf books that had been assembled by the late Edmund Hoffman, Mrs. Hoffman’s husband and Dr. Hoffman’s father. Both Edmund and Adelyn Hoffman graduated from UT and, in 2008 the Hoffman Family Foundation provided approximately $110,000 to the Stark Center. This gift will allow the Stark Center to hire for a period of three years an archivist whose primary responsibility will be to oversee the Edmund Hoffman Golf Collection and other books and artifacts related to that collection.
