Appreciation

‘Invested in Students’

As a student in political science at Rochester, Cathy Minehan ’68 took part in research on game theory that Professor William Riker was conducting.

“When I called him 15 years later, he remembered me and the game,” Minehan recalls. “He was very invested in his students and his research. He was wonderful to take a class from.”

NAMESAKES: “Professors make the University,” says Cathy Minehan ’68, who, with her husband, E. Gerald Corrigan, endowed the new professorship.

As Minehan, a University trustee, and her husband, E. Gerald Corrigan, were considering the details of a professorship in political science they had decided to endow, their minds turned again to Riker.

“I’m extremely grateful for the high quality of the education I received,” says Minehan. “And I have a particular fondness for Bill Riker.”

The newly established Corrigan-Minehan Professorship in Political Science honors a scholar who exemplifies the research and teaching spirit of the late Riker, who’s widely credited as leading Rochester’s political science program to national prominence. The inaugural holder of the professorship is Lawrence Rothenberg.

“Professors make the University, and the better funding you have for quality teaching, the better it is for everybody—students, the University, and graduates,” says Minehan.

With a $3 million gift, the couple also augmented the Corrigan-Minehan Scholarship Fund that they had previously established. Students with significant financial need, underrepresented minorities, athletes in good academic standing, and those pursuing research in the social sciences directed by a faculty member can benefit.

“This marvelous gift directly supports the core mission of the College to provide outstanding educational and research opportunities for students,” says Peter Lennie, the Robert L. and Mary L. Sproull Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Sciences & Engineering. “Scholarship aid opens our doors ever wider to excellent students with financial need.”

Corrigan says the professorship they have created also supports increased opportunities for students.

“We want to, in whatever small way we can, encourage the highest standards of teaching and interaction, not just in the classroom, between the highest caliber of professors and their students.”

Minehan is former chief executive and president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and is well-known for her work in national and international payment systems. Her ties to Rochester span generations, and include her son, Brian ’04. A participating managing director at Goldman Sachs, Corrigan is a former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He chaired the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, an international policy-setting body, and he helped establish and served as cochairman of the Russian-American Banking Forum.

“We feel deeply about the continuing quality of education at Rochester, and funding a professorship seemed the best way to do that,” Minehan says.

—Kathleen McGarvey