Kulwicki estate gift boosts UNCC
Thursday, Oct. 15, 2009
The estate of the late NASCAR driver Alan Kulwicki is donating $1.9 million to UNC Charlotte's motorsports engineering program and another $600,000 to the engineering department at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Kulwicki's alma mater.
Officials from both schools and members of Kulwicki's family are scheduled to make the announcement Thursday morning at Lowe's Motor Speedway.
The gift to UNCC's engineering college is its largest to date. The bulk will be used for scholarships for students pursuing degrees in the motorsports program and to help build more laboratory space (roughly 15,000 square feet) for the program at UNCC's Charlotte Research Campus, a school official said.
Kulwicki, a Wisconsin native, moved to the Charlotte area in 1985 to run his own race team. He died in a plane crash in April 1993. The previous year, he became the first college graduate to win the championship at NASCAR's top level.
He graduated from Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1977 with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. The $600,000 gift will go to scholarships and building a student lounge in the engineering school where Kulwicki memorabilia will also be displayed, school spokeswoman Laura Hunt said Wednesday. "It will be designed by a committee of students," she said.
The engineering school's dean, Michael Lovell, is flying to Charlotte today to join UNCC Chancellor Philip Dubois and Bob Johnson, engineering college dean, for the announcement. Members of Kulwicki's family and Paul Andrews, Kulwicki's former crew chief, are also expected to speak.
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