December 4, 2003

Trustee Richard Bready and his wife Cheryl have made history at Saint Anselm College by committing $1 million to fund the college's first endowed chair. In a further act of generosity, the Breadys pledged $250,000 to match, dollar-for-dollar, new or increased gifts designated for annual scholarships.

Both gifts are part of the Campaign for Saint Anselm College, which aims to double the college's $50 million endowment by 2006. So far, the college has $42 million in commitments.

"I want to personally thank Mr. and Mrs. Bready on a number of levels for their historic generosity and for their confidence in our students and faculty," said Fr. Jonathan DeFelice, O.S.B., president of the college. "The couple's commitment to scholarship aid and to faculty excellence will have an immediate and powerful impact on the Saint Anselm experience."

The Richard L. Bready Chair in Ethics, Economics, and the Common Good will address some of today's most complex issues.

 "The first years of the 21st Century have presented our society with a range of ethical issues affecting every aspect of the common good," said Fr. Jonathan. "In our tradition the common good is the sum of all the conditions necessary - economic, religious, political, material, and cultural - that allow individuals and organizations to achieve complete and effective fulfillment.

 "From Wall Street to Main Street, from Capitol Hill to Town Hall, from research laboratories to health care systems, from the music industry to art galleries, from Catholicism to Islam, from peace in the world to a just local law enforcement, the questions of what is right and wrong, of what we should do to advance our lives together, have come to the fore in new and far more complex ways," he said.

The Bready Chair will allow various departments in the liberal arts to engage a faculty member to study the relationship between ethics and a particular discipline. How ethics and the disciplines function in a free market economy will also receive attention, he said.

"Endowed Faculty Chairs enable the college to attract notable faculty as visiting professors, thus providing opportunities for other faculty and students to study with national and international experts," Fr. Jonathan said.

Bready told The Union Leader that he has seen an erosion of ethics in business. He hopes that course work examining ethics from different vantage points will be a springboard to new academic approaches.

"It's to give people an experience in something that's missing today," said Bready, an economics major who graduated from Saint Anselm in three years.

 "My arrival on the Saint Anselm campus as a freshman in 1962 was a pivotal moment for me. It was then that I began to prepare for the challenges that life would present," he said. "I can say with pride that my Saint Anselm experience helped me develop the skills and habits necessary to meet the challenges I have faced in the nearly 40 years since graduation. I am pleased to be able to give back."

The $250,000 "Bready Challenge" is another first for the college. If fully matched by donations from other alumni and friends, the $500,000 total would also become the fund's single largest gift.  "What the Breadys have helped us do is significant," said James Flanagan, vice president for college advancement. "With approximately 85 percent of Saint Anselm students receiving some type of financial assistance, their leadership and our collective effort can be far reaching."

A resident of Providence and Newport, R.I., Richard Bready graduated from Saint Anselm in 1965. He is chairman and chief executive officer of Nortek Inc. The diversified company headquartered in Providence manufactures and distributes building products for industrial and residential use. A Certified Public Accountant, Bready earned a master's degree from Northeastern University.