During its 2020 Homecoming Weekend festivities, Lander University paused to recognize three of its longtime supporters whose generosity is making a lasting impact at the university.
The Rev. Doug Kauffmann, an adjunct professor and immediate past chair of The Lander Foundation; Mr. George Starnes, a 1981 Lander alumnus and trustee emeritus of the Lander University Board of Trustees; and Mr. Steve Wohlwend, a 1981 graduate and standout member of Lander's golf team, were invited to center court in Horne Arena during the university's homecoming basketball games for a special ceremony in their honor.
Kauffmann and his wife, Sally, a 1975 Lander alumna, are generous supporters of many charitable organizations in the Greenwood community, and the pair recently established a new professorship in Lander's College of Behavioral and Social Sciences in memory of Greenwood County native and civil rights icon Dr. Benjamin E. Mays. A spiritual mentor to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Mays served as president of Morehouse College for 27 years and was the recipient of 56 honorary degrees throughout his lifetime, including one from Lander University in 1974.
Starnes, a founding member of Delta Chi at Lander (which later became a chapter of Kappa Sigma National Fraternity), has generously endowed a chair for the Lander University College of Business. A founding partner with G3 Wealth Advisors, Starnes said his positive experience in Lander's business school had a profound effect on his education and professional career. He and his wife, Julie, chose to make a transformational gift to strengthen the College of Business through research and by helping recruit and retain the best and brightest business faculty.
A classmate of Starnes, Wohlwend is also a founding member of Delta Chi at Lander and earned all-conference honors with Lander's golf team. After graduating with a degree in accounting, he spent most of his professional career with Aetna Insurance in senior management positions. Wohlwend and his wife, Liz, have chosen to endow several student scholarships at Lander to "create a culture of giving" among fellow alumni, and to "ensure we sustain and grow, as well as invest in, the future generations of Lander students with financial support, as Lander helped to lift us up."