Columbia College set to hold memorial ceremony Friday for former president Dr. Donald Ruthenberg
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Columbia College will be hosting a memorial and interment for the college's 15th president, Dr. Donald Ruthenberg who died earlier this month at the age of 94.
The memorial will take place at 10:30 a.m. Friday at Missouri United Methodist Church on 9th, then followed by an internment in the MUMC prayer garden.
The college is remembering Dr. Ruthenberg as an advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion. During his tenure, the college created various programs for international students and organized sister-city and sister-institution partnerships with countries like Taiwan and Japan.
Under Dr. Ruthenberg's 11 years of leadership at the college he was able to reduce the college debt from $1.8 billion to zero while also increasing endowment from $350,000 to $2 million.
His love of sports is also not going unnoticed. He was inducted into the Cougar athletics hall of fame in 2014. He was responsible for getting the universities name changed from the Centaurs to the Cougars.
Columbia College will be accepting a gift for Dr. Ruthenberg's memory which will go to either the Dee and Don Ruthenberg Scholarship or the Dr. Donald Ruthenberg Endowment Program fund in support of diversity, equity and inclusion.
