Corvallis, Oregon
February 21, 2008
A Northwest family with more than
40 years in the golf business has donated $1 million to endow a
faculty position in turf management at
Oregon State University.
The N.B. and Jacqueline Giustina Professorship in Turf
Management will help recruit a top faculty member to the program
established by Tom Cook, who is planning to retire in fall 2008.
The gift was a decision by the Giustina family to honor the late
Nat Giustina, a 1941 OSU graduate, lifelong golfer and owner of
an Oregon timber business.
“I am deeply grateful to Nat’s wife Jackie and the entire
Giustina family for honoring Nat in this way,” said Cook. “Nat
was always our strongest supporter from the day I arrived at
OSU. This generous gift will ensure our turf program will
continue to meet the challenge of educating future
superintendents who can produce outstanding playing surfaces for
the public and enhance the unique environmental benefits that
golf courses can provide urban areas.”
Under Cook’s direction, OSU’s turf management program has earned
national recognition. In 30 years at OSU, Cook has lead the
development of new grass mixes that require less water and
chemicals and devised new approaches to making golf courses
environmentally “green” without compromising functionality,
rigor and form. The turf program has also produced graduates who
have served as superintendents of prominent golf courses all
over the West Coast and beyond, including Bandon Dunes, Pebble
Beach and Pronghorn. For his many contributions, Cook was
honored with the Distinguished Service Award by the Golf Course
Superintendents Association of America in 2006.
The Giustinas’ gift is a major boost to a fundraising effort to
benefit the turf management program, in anticipation of Cook’s
upcoming retirement. Started by the Oregon Golf Course
Superintendants Association and its foundation, the fundraising
drive includes support from the Oregon Seed Trade Association,
Northwest Turf Grass Association, Oregon Turf and Tree Farms, as
well as several other individual supporters. OSU’s College of
Agricultural Sciences is seeking additional gifts to grow an
endowed fund to provide resources for the turf program’s
research, education and outreach activities.
“OSU’s turf management program has a proud history of producing
research and graduates that are leading the way in the golf
industry,” said Thayne Dutson, dean of the College of
Agricultural Sciences “The critical support from the Giustinas,
the OGSCA and many others will ensure that this legacy continues
to grow in the future to build on the stature of the program
that Tom Cook established.”
In the mid-1960s Giustina established the Tokatee Golf Club near
his cabin on the McKenzie River in Blue River, Ore. The club,
which is still a family business headed up by Nat’s son Larry
Giustina, has been ranked as one of Oregon’s best courses by
GolfWeek and Golf Digest. Nat Giustina was also a long time
volunteer for OSU and served 25 years on the OSU Foundation
Board. In the 1980s, he was the primary catalyst and lead donor
behind the effort to create the Trysting Tree Golf Club, a
championship 18-hole golf course in Corvallis, Ore., the
proceeds of which benefit OSU.
“Golf was one of my father’s greatest loves, and he had strong
ties to Oregon State University ever since he graduated,” said
Larry Giustina. “He would be very pleased with this gift.”
The turf management professorship was part of a larger $4
million gift by the Giustina family in support of The Campaign
for OSU, the university’s first campus-wide fundraising
campaign; the other portion of the Giustinas’ gift will create
an endowed professorship in forest management.
Oregon State University (OSU) is one of only two U.S.
universities designated a land-, sea-, space- and sun-grant
institution. OSU is also Oregon’s university designated in the
Carnegie Foundation’s top tier for research institutions,
garnering more than 60 percent of the total federal and private
research funding in the Oregon University System. Its more than
19,700 students come from all 50 states and more than 80
countries. OSU programs touch every county within Oregon, and
its faculty teach and conduct research on issues of national and
global importance. |
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