Chapter Fourteen - A Defining Moment
board members gave generously, and we kept campaign expenses well below the expected figure. Our total campaign costs would not exceed $4 million, and that was an amazing achievement.” Ulrich did a superb job of convincing ASU Foundation board members to give generously of their financial resources and their time. “I made my own contribution,” he remembered. “And then I told each member of the board that I expected them to make theirs. They stepped up to the plate and got the job done in a big way. Then they went out and convinced others to do the same.” Long before President Coor announced the launching of the campaign, major gifts were coming in. And each of the early gifts attracted others. During the two years of preparation for the campaign about a third of the $300 million goal was reached.
Lattie F. Coor was ASU’s 15th president, serving from 1990 to 2002.
Much of the early success of the ASU Campaign for Leadership was directly attributable to the efforts of President Coor. Not only had he been more deeply involved in previous developmental efforts — particularly at the University of Vermont — than any earlier ASU president, but he projected himself into the new campaign with total devotion. So completely had he won over leaders of the Phoenix area and beyond during the first five years of his presidency that they responded with unprecedented enthusiasm to his call for their support. “A campaign of this magnitude needed a charismatic leader, not a manager,” Ostrom said. “Lattie Coor had a vision of a greater Arizona State University, and he was able to transmit that vision into the hearts and minds of others. Moreover, he realized that the most important gifts are made possible only when the president himself goes and asks for them. “He worked tirelessly during the campaign, and he never asked anyone to do something he wouldn’t do. The campaign will live for many decades as his legacy, and he will be remembered as one of ASU’s truly great presidents.”
The Nursing and Innovation Building II opened on ASU’s Downtown Phoenix campus in August 2009. Its copper cladding is a nod to Arizona’s mining history. ASU Foundation for A New American University
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