Former professor inspires $1 million gift to the University of Oregon.

EUGENE, Ore. -- "A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops."

American writer and historian Henry Brooks Adams wrote those words in 1907 -- and a half-million dollar gift to support the University of Oregon's efforts to recruit and keep top business professors provides fresh evidence that his words ring true.

Austin Jaffe left the university's business college faculty 25 years ago for a position at Penn State University. But his teaching skills -- and his grading standards -- still pay dividends here.

It was because of Jaffe's tough grading standards on a business finance test in 1977 that Peter Powell and Molly Leahy met and later married. And because the Powells were inspired by Jaffe's teaching in that long-ago class, they recently decided to contribute $500,000 to support faculty recruitment and retention by the university's Charles H. Lundquist College of Business.

Peter Powell remembers Jaffe's course as quite challenging. Hoping to improve his grades, he joined seven other men in a study group. After the first test, Jaffe announced that he had given four A's, two B's and three C's -- and flunked the rest of the class.

"Our study group got three of the A's, the two B's, and the three C's," recalls Peter Powell, who got a B. "We wanted to find out who the other A was so we could get them to join our group and guess who? It was Molly."

After Molly joined the study group, she and Peter started dating, graduated from the university with business degrees in 1978, married and embarked on successful careers.

When the Powells, who live in Bellevue, Wash., started thinking recently about making a major gift to their alma mater, they remembered the professor who had inspired them and inadvertently brought them together. They decided to direct half of a recent $1 million gift to the Lundquist College of Business to help the college recruit and retain professors like Jaffe. The remainder went toward the cost of Powell Plaza, a new entryway to Hayward Field. Peter's father, Lloyd Powell '55, also contributed $500,000 to the plaza project.

Peter Powell remembers Jaffe as an innovative teacher.

"He didn't want you to just learn and regurgitate -- he wanted you to know how and why things work," says Peter Powell. "He was instrumental in giving us an idea of what leadership is all about and a vision of what it might be like in the real world," remembers Molly Powell.

"You hate to see professors of that caliber getting hired away," says Peter Powell.

Molly Powell agrees. "You have to be able to retain great teachers and attract new ones as well. The UO business college has come onto the radar nationally, and we have to be able to compete with the bigger schools for top faculty members. Having the right teachers in that environment is the key to success, not just for the students but for the school."

Austin Jaffe -- now the Philip H. Sieg Professor of Business Economics, director of international programs and director for the Institute of Real Estate Studies at Penn State -- says financial considerations were indeed a significant factor in his decision to leave the University of Oregon.

"I went on leave to visit Penn State in 1980, fully intending to return to Eugene," Jaffe recalls. "In the end, my wife and I decided to stay in Pennsylvania, in part because the financial situation was so difficult in Oregon. Additional financial resources would have ensured that we would have returned to Eugene."

Jaffe says he remembers Peter Powell and Molly, then Molly Leahy, well.

"I am truly touched by their decision to remember me in their gift," he says. "Faculty endowments are instrumental in keeping valuable faculty at institutions which want them to stay."

"This gift from Molly and Peter Powell is so important to our goal of increasing endowed faculty support," says James Bean, Oregon business dean. "Our educational model blends world-class research and teaching in the classroom with real business experiences outside the classroom. This is an innovative approach to learning that begins and ends with our faculty."

Peter Powell worked for the Coldwell Banker commercial real estate company in Portland before joining his father's construction business in 1983 to start the company's property development and management arms. Today he is the president of Powell Development Co. The Kirkland, Wash.-based company develops and builds stores for Albertsons, Safeway, Fred Meyer, Walgreens, Costco and Lowe's, among other firms.

Molly Powell worked for U.S. Bank in Portland in the real estate and investment divisions and then as a municipal bond trader for Smith Barney in Seattle.

This family of business-oriented Ducks also includes Peter Powell's brother Tom, a 1980 business graduate, and Peter and Molly Powell's son, Brendan, a sophomore pre-business major.

About the Lundquist College of Business: http://www.lcb.uoregon.edu/news/powell.html

About the Powell Family: http://waddle.uoregon.edu/?id=332

About combined gifts by the Powells and the family of Oregon track legend Bill Bowerman for Hayward Field: http://waddle.uoregon.edu/?id=330