Three of the University’s most devoted and accomplished supporters will be the recipients of Fordham Founders Awards when the University holds its 12th Annual Awards Dinner on March 18 at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City.
This year’s awards go to:
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| E. Gerald Corrigan |
E. Gerald Corrigan, PH.D., GSAS ’65, ’71, partner and managing director of Goldman Sachs. Known for his legendary work ethic, Corrigan has built a career in finance that spans the public and private sectors. He spent 25 years in the Federal Reserve System serving in a variety of positions, including special assistant to Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul Volcker in Washington, D.C., before retiring as president and chief executive officer of the New York Fed in 1993. President Bill Clinton promptly appointed him to head the Russian-American Enterprise Fund, and from 1993 to 1995, he was director of the Council on Foreign Relations.
In 1994, Corrigan joined Goldman Sachs. He is the co-chair of the Firmwide Risk Management Committee and chairman of Goldman Sachs Bank USA.
He holds master’s and doctoral degrees in economics from Fordham, where worked closely with his mentor, Joseph Cammarosano, Ph.D., to lead 50 students in an economic development study of the Bronx. In 1999, he established the E. Gerald Corrigan, Ph.D., Endowed Scholarship Fund, which supports talented undergraduate students at Fordham. In 2007, he made a $5 million gift to the University to further sustain that fund and to create the Corrigan Chair in International Business and Finance, an endowed professorship at the Fordham Schools of Business. He was inducted into the University’s Hall of Honor in 2012 and continues to show unwavering commitment to Fordham.
Patricia Anne Heller and John Ryan Heller, PAR ‘03, ’07, ’11. Though they were Fordham parents for just 12
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| John and Patricia Heller |
years, Patricia and John Heller are self-described Fordham “lifers.” The couple sent three of their four children to the Bronx from their home on Chicago’s North Shore to expose them to the opportunities of New York City while continuing to immerse them in the rigorous Jesuit education and its values. Their daughters, Amy and Michaela, graduated from Fordham College at Rose Hill in 2003 and 2007, respectively. Their son Tim graduated from the Gabelli School of Business in 2011.
John Heller is the former CEO and president of Heller Seasonings and Ingredients, Inc., a major food ingredient supplier founded by his family in 1893. He served as a trustee of the Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Chicago, and he and Patti are Lifetime Founders of the Loyola Academy in Wilmette, Ill., the Jesuit college preparatory school attended by all three of their Fordham graduates and their son Ryan. Since 2005, John has been one half of the musical group Basil & Heller, a folk duo based in Chicago.
Patti Heller is serving her second three-year term on Fordham’s Board of Trustees. She is a trustee of Casa Esperanza, which acts as a bridge between shelter living and permanent housing for women and children in Chicago. In 2008, when their son Tim was at Gabelli, Patti and John worked with Fordham’s administration to develop the University’s first Parents’ Leadership Council, serving as its inaugural co-chairs and helping to recruit members from coast to coast. Today, the group boasts more than 70 members and thrives in its efforts to recruit and mentor students, provide job opportunities, and raise funds to support Fordham’s mission.
John and Patti have generously supported the Gabelli School with a $500,000 gift, and establishing the Heller Family Endowed Scholarship Fund with a gift of the same amount. They have also contributed to Fordham athletics and to WFUV, where John sits on the advisory board.
The annual Founders Awards are given each spring to members of the Fordham community whose personal and professional lives reflect the highest aspirations of the University’s defining traditions, and who can stand as exemplars of these traditions for generations to come.
