Shortly after Raymond von Dran passed away on July 23, 2007, his widow established a fund named in his honor.

More than three years later, approximately $1.7 million was pledged to the Raymond F. von Dran Fund through individual gifts and an annual dinner called ‘Forever 60,’ which celebrates von Dran’s birthday. Von Dran served as the dean of the School of Information Studies from 1995 to 2007. He died suddenly before his 61st birthday.

On Feb. 16, the iSchool announced the funds pledged during the past three years would go to the Student Start-up Accelerator, giving the program stability to continue into the future, said Stacey Keefe, executive director of the Center for Entrepreneurship Experiential Learning. The Student Start-up Accelerator, a partnership between SU and the Syracuse Technology Garden, aids Central New York college and university students to start nonprofit and for-profit businesses.

The original purpose of the fund was to name the iSchool after Raymond, but Gisela von Dran, Raymond’s widow and an iSchool Board of Advisers member, saw the need for money toward student innovation and decided that was where the donations should go, Keefe said.

Gisela made the decision to dedicate the money to the Student Start-up Accelerator and will continue to raise donations for the von Dran Fund endowment, Keefe said. In each coming year, $50,000 will be taken out of the endowment to provide funding for student ventures, which include inventive ways to improve the world, she said.

To compete for the $50,000 worth of funds, students pitch their venture ideas to judges, including Gisela, at Emerging Talk, an annual student-run conference, said Elizabeth Liddy, dean of the iSchool. The conference brings together entrepreneurs, organizations, investors and students, she said. 

‘It’s really energizing, and it’s a great merging of the community supporting the university and the university supporting the community,’ Liddy said. The Student Start-up Accelerator is open to all student entrepreneurs from colleges and universities in the Syracuse area.

Liddy said the fund allows Raymond’s legacy to live on today. Without the support from the fund, student ventures wouldn’t happen as often, she said. There will now be more new startups for students because of the money pledged to the program, she said. 

‘They don’t take accounting just to take accounting,’ Liddy said. ‘It’s because now they have their own startup, and it really matters that they know how to manage the money.’

The goal of the Student Start-up Accelerator, which will be renamed in honor of Raymond, mirrors his own ambition, Liddy said.

‘He was great,’ she said. ‘He was very energetic, very forward-looking. He was probably the primary force behind the whole national, now international, movement in iSchools.’

Before joining SU, Raymond served as the dean of the information schools at The Catholic University of America and the University of North Texas. He established distance education programs in the library and information science field at three universities in the 1970s and created research centers and Ph.D. programs in the same field in the 1980s, according to the von Dran Fund website. 

During his time at the iSchool, the number of faculty and students almost tripled, and the school’s master’s degree program in information management and the Ph.D. program in information science and technology were ranked second in the nation by U.S. News and World Report, according to an iSchool website created in memory of Raymond. 

Raymond also helped bring the iSchool to the Quad in Hinds Hall. Because Raymond had built up the iSchool to a prominent position, then-Chancellor Kenneth ‘Buzz’ Shaw said the school was as worthy as any other to be on the Quad, Liddy said.

‘In terms of schools, that’s a big thing to be able to have a building of your own and be on the Quad,’ Liddy said. ‘I’ve always thought that was one real indication of what Ray had done for this school.’

jdharr04@syr.edu

Published on February 22, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Jon: jdharr04@syr.edu