"Pendleton" has been on everyone's lips over the last few weeks - from grant deadlines to the excitement around the big celebration. But who is James B. Pendleton and why are we celebrating him?
In 1979, beloved Ithaca College film professor Gustav "Skip" Landen was working on a production in Greece when he struck up a conversation with "Jimmy" Pendleton, who was an interior designer in Hollywood. Landen was passionate about his work, teaching students, and celebrating their projects. Pendleton was so taken with this enthusiasm that he asked how he could help support the students. From there, an annual grant was established to help a student with the costly expense of processing their thesis projects. Each year, students would send a thank you note along with a copy of their project to Pendleton. That gesture thrilled Pendleton. Landen continued his friendship with Pendleton along with Dean Tom Bohn, who would all visit together in LA. When Pendleton passed away in 1995, he endowed the largest single donation to Ithaca College (and the Park School specifically) in the sum of $15,000,000 - much to the surprise of Dean Bohn!
That gift has benefitted the Park School in so many ways that affect every staff, student, and faculty member whether they know it or not. The Pendleton Endowment provides over $800K to the Park School each year, supporting ICLA, the Park School's annual technology upgrades, two endowed professorships, $125K in student scholarship awards, and nearly $75,000 for student, faculty and staff projects.
Please help us say "thank you" as we celebrate 25 years of the James B. Pendleton endowment on Wednesday, April 7th at 7pm. RSVP for Zoom link.