News and Events - UMaine Alum
Pledges $100,000 for Campaign to Establish Endowed Professorship
in Honor of Dennis McConnell
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Finance
Professor Dennis McConnell
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Jay Cromarty graduated from the University of
Maine nearly 30 years ago. But the Boston financial services
executive still remembers his finance professor for his intellect,
good humor and expertise.
Now Jay is spearheading an effort to raise $1
million to create the Dennis McConnell Professorship and has
helped to get the ball rolling by making a generous pledge of
$100,000 through the Office of University Development.
"Mac was someone who made a lasting
impression," says Jay, Class of ‘78, and president of the Eastern
Region, Boston Private Financial Holdings. "He was a dynamic
speaker and he had a great sense of humor. He clearly was having
so much fun teaching and this came through. Finance can be a very
dry subject, but he brought it to life. He helped propel a number
of us into the field of finance."
Other alums also like the idea of honoring
Professor McConnell who retired in 1995 after nearly 20 years at
UMaine. He now lives in Surry with his wife, UMaine business
Professor Virginia Gibson. Although business majors Ed Keefe '86
and Scott Duggan '87 didn't have him as a teacher, they
contributed generously toward the professorship -- which will be
held at the University of Maine Foundation -- and have become
members of the Stillwater Society.
As supporters of Campaign Maine - UMaine's
largest-ever private fundraising campaign -- all three loyal Black
Bears are helping to achieve one of President Robert Kennedy's
goals of increasing the number of endowed professorships to draw
national and international visibility and attract and retain
quality faculty.
Noting that the UMaine Business School has
been ranked among the top 150 business programs in the country,
Ed, a chief financial officer with a venture capital firm in
Boston, says more endowed professorships "will only help us move
up in the national rankings."
Endowed professorships are the hallmark of a
great University, lending prestige, attracting top notch students
and helping "weather the storm a little bit during down times with
the state budget," he adds.
A partner with the Boston law firm of Goodwin
& Proctor, Scott says his support is "in appreciation of the
quality of undergraduate education I received at UMaine." After
visiting the campus last summer, he was impressed with both the
students and the facilities and says he is determined to give back
to the UMaine Business School.
For his part, Professor McConnell says he was
"stunned" when he learned of the plans to honor him.
"It's such a magnificent act of kindness."
Although he and Jay had not been in touch over
the years, Professor McConnell says he immediately recalled his
former student and says he always was confident of the young man's
success.
"It's a special mark of respect and a unique
honor that a group of students decided to get together and name an
endowment after a faculty member," says Dean John Mahon.
As UMaine Business School's third endowed
position, the McConnell professorship "will help it continue to
survive and prosper. It's an enticement to bring in new faculty
and reward the wonderful existing faculty. It's great because it
allows the chair to move around. For several years it could be in
finance, then in marketing, then in management. It allows the
school some flexibility in its use."
Another UMaine graduate who credits Professor
McConnell with helping her launch a successful career is Elizabeth
Maker Michaud '88, who says creating a professorship in his name
is a fitting way to honor his "passion to inspire his students to
achieve anything."
Elizabeth, who works for Lockheed Martin and
is responsible for helping the corporation modernize its business
systems, says her former professor had a "magical" effect on her
life.
"Denny was very inspirational, supportive and
encouraging," she recalls. "Whenever I felt down I'd go and sit in
his office. He'd make me feel like I could do anything."
Although he originally planned to major in
history and English literature in college, Professor McConnell
says he was hooked on finance as soon as he was introduced to the
topic.
"It's just so ordered. All the questions have
answers and all the processes have sequences and solutions. After
all these years I still enjoy the structure of it."
Professor McConnell is more than an
academician. Before joining the UMaine business faculty, he served
as a consultant with Arthur Andersen and Company in Chicago and as
a retail banker with the international banking division of
American Express in Germany. While a member of the faculty, he
founded and served as chairman of the board and chief financial
officer of Butterfield Bottling Company in Bangor, and he
co-founded and served as vice president of finance of Field
Technologies, a manufacturer of hydraulic fluid-control valves,
also in Bangor.
It was this real-world experience coupled with
love of his subject that helped make Professor McConnell a gifted
teacher, according to Jay Cromarty.
"It was a winning combination."
Associate Dean Gloria Vollmers says she and
other colleagues also enjoyed Professor McConnell's quick wit and
easy going personality.
"He was very good natured and outgoing. He
loved the students."
Drawn to UMaine because of its nationally
known business faculty including then Dean Stan Devino and then
Professor Neil Murphy, Professor McConnell says he enjoyed
teaching here from day one.
"It was so much fun I couldn't believe they
paid me. The students made the whole process interesting. They
paid attention, were always tuned in and had a great work ethic."
Professor McConnell himself may have been
instrumental in inducing several hundred high achieving students
to come to the UMaine Business School after he wrote letters to
applicants with stellar SAT scores and grades and invited them to
attend the flagship University.
"I thought it would be a way to get students
who really cared about school and the subject matter. It seemed to
work. We had a lot of top students in the finance department. I
enjoyed the personal contact and they were pleased and proud that
they had been personally asked to come to the UMaine Business
School."
Determined to help all students get the most
out of their education, Professor McConnell served for a number of
years as advisor to the Maine Chapter of the Financial Management
Association, a national organization that seeks to provide
opportunities for students to interact with practitioners and to
enhance the quality of finance education.
"My role was to act as cheerleader and get
students enthusiastic about their studies and about doing well in
the world of business," says Professor McConnell who brought in
speakers to discuss a myriad of topics involving finance.
"It was a way of establishing contact with
people outside the University and showing students there was
indeed life after school."
His work with the Maine chapter of the FMA was
one of his proudest career accomplishments. "It made students'
time at UMaine meaningful," he says. "The University has an
obligation to pay attention to students and tell them ‘we're glad
you're here.'"
Retirement hasn't slowed Professor McConnell
down. He has been working with the U.S. Agency for International
Development helping universities in eastern Europe and central
Asia develop business programs. Traveling to these far-flung
places has been "an interesting experience," he says.
But he still manages to squeeze his favorite
pastime into his busy schedule.
"There's always time to sail," he says.
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