Fond Campus Memories Fuel Campaign Gift to Architecture

Jim and Mary Alice Van Sickle

Alumni Jim and Mary Alice Van Sickle of Cambridge, Massachusetts have a long-lasting connection to the University of Arkansas, where they first met each other. Because of their shared love for the university and the role it played in their lives, they committed a planned gift to create the Herbert K. Fowler Endowed Chair in Architecture and Urban Design and the James R. and Mary Alice Van Sickle Endowed Scholarships in Architecture and Urban Design.

Mary Alice Van Sickle grew up in Louisiana, while Jim Van Sickle grew up in the Pacific Northwest and Southern California. The two met on the U of A campus when Mary Alice was a graduate student studying English and Jim was earning his degree in architecture.

"When we arrived at the University of Arkansas, we were taken in, treated well and received an excellent education," Jim Van Sickle said. "The more we thought about it, the more we thought we would like to give back."

Mary Alice Van Sickle added, "If we're leaving something, it makes sense for us to send it back to those places that helped us get started."

The Herbert K. Fowler Endowed Chair in Architecture and Urban Design is named for the late professor emeritus of architecture at the U of A, who was Jim Van Sickle's first professor of design.

"He was one of the best teachers I had anywhere," Van Sickle said. "He deserves to be remembered among the great group of founding professors that the architecture program was so lucky to begin with. Their legacy is the superb Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design that exists at the university today."

Because the Van Sickles benefited from scholarship support as students, they also felt inclined to establish one of their own. The James R. and Mary Alice Van Sickle Endowed Scholarships in Architecture and Urban Design will provide financial assistance to students enrolled in any discipline within the Fay Jones School, with preference given to students in any of the graduate programs affiliated with the U of A Community Design Center.

"We've always been interested in the community design program at the university," Jim Van Sickle said. "They have a need, so it made sense to do something for this program. We received similar scholarships, and neither of us would've made it through without that support."