$1 MILLION FOR UH HILO COLLEGE OF PHARMACY BUILDING
Article reprinted courtesy of University of Hawaii Foundation
Monday, August 3, 2009
(Hilo, Hawaiʻi) — The College of Pharmacy at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo is on track to move forward with the building of additional teaching and research facilities thanks to a $1 million gift from the J.M. Long Foundation. This gift will support the construction of the initial phase of a health sciences complex. In recognition of this generous contribution from the J.M. Long Foundation, the Board of Regents has approved naming Building B the Joseph M. Long Pavilion.
Pharmacy Dean John M. Pezzuto announced the gift saying the donation is essential to help build the College's eminence in pharmaceutical education.
"This gift embodies the mutual investment that the J.M. Long Foundation and the College of Pharmacy have made in the State of Hawaiʻi," Pezzuto continued. "Let me say from the bottom of my heart, thank you to the J.M. Long Foundation for helping us fulfill our pledge to offer our students quality education while addressing the critical shortage of qualified pharmacists in Hawaiʻi and across the nation."
The College of Pharmacy's teaching, research, study, administrative and faculty office spaces are currently distributed across the UH-Hilo campus and the city of Hilo. The site of the new health sciences complex is situated on 10 acres located adjacent to UH-Hilo's astronomy and science museum, ʻImiloa Astronomy Center.
The complex is made up of four modular buildings (A, B, C, and D) being built in three phases (1A, 1B, 1C). Phase 1A consists of the construction of Buildings A, B, and D that include a lecture hall, four class rooms, three research labs, student services and IT services. Phase 1C is for the construction of Building C. Other funders include the State of Hawaiʻi, which appropriated $6 million for construction. The College of Pharmacy expects to relocate to the new complex in fall 2009.
The J.M. Long Foundation gift will fund phase 1B of the project, which will add 2,880 square feet to Building B with the addition of a lecture hall, student center, and adjoining lanais. The lecture hall will be used daily and will be equipped with networking and distance learning equipment and can be used for nights and weekends for conferencing. The student center will fulfill unmet needs at the College as a site for student advisement and counseling; student group meetings, materials storage and activity planning; and hosting of community related projects. The lanai will be an area for presentations and speeches, receptions, short presentations and speeches, and other informal activities and socialization.
Joseph M. Long, an entrepreneur and co-founder of Longs Drug Stores, created his foundation, The J.M. Long Foundation, in 1966 as a way of giving back to others from whom he received during his lifetime.
He first visited Hawaiʻi in 1948, sailing across the Pacific on the SS Lurline for vacation. He was very impressed with what he saw, so much so that in 1953 he negotiated a lease for property at the corner of Hotel and Bishop Streets, and built what became the first Longs Drugs store in Hawaiʻi opening in 1954. He was personally involved in working with Walter Dillingham on the opening of Longs in the Ala Moana Shopping Center in 1959, the second Longs in the islands. During the next 20 years, whenever a Longs store site came up for consideration, he remained an advocate for continued support of the community in Hawaiʻi.
As Chairman of the Board of Longs Drug Stores, he noted: "In everything we have done I have never forgotten my mother's admonitions about caring for people; caring for those who work with us, caring for those we work for, caring for our fellowman. We go through this life but once. If there is anything we can do, or help that we can give, let us do it now, because we may not pass this way again."