Distributed September 20, 1994
For Immediate Release

News Service Contact: Mark Nickel



National Champion Men’s Crew Honored

Gift to athletics helps improve men’s and women’s crew, volleyball

A $300,000 gift from alumnus Finn M. W. Caspersen in honor of the men’s crew’s second undefeated season will benefit the men’s and women’s crew programs. A portion of the gift, used at the discretion of the athletic director, will fund a full-time women’s volleyball coach.


PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A $300,000 gift from a generous alumnus to the Brown University and its Department of Athletics and Physical Education has brought significant improvements to three of the University’s varsity athletic teams, according to David Roach, director of athletics.

The gift, made by Finn M. W. Caspersen, a member of the Class of 1963, a Brown parent and a University trustee emeritus, honored Brown’s national champion men’s crew, which completed its second consecutive undefeated season last spring. Caspersen, a devotee of rowing, had traveled to England to witness the triumph of Brown’s freshman crew in the Henley Regatta last summer.

Caspersen directed $50,000 of his gift to the Brown Annual Fund, one of the University’s most important sources of unrestricted current income. Brown’s crew program – men and women – will receive $100,000 directly. The remaining half of the gift is to be used at the discretion of Athletic Director David Roach.

“I chose to direct those funds to the women’s varsity volleyball team,” Roach said. “By allowing me to change the volleyball coaching position from part-time to full-time, the gift has made possible full varsity support for the team over the next five years.” The department has opened a search for a full-time varsity volleyball coach.

In addition, Roach announced that John Murphy, head coach of the women’s crew, has been named manager of the newly expanded Marston Boathouse. Murphy and the women’s crew will share the new facility with the men’s crew and its new head coach Scott Roop, who coached the triumphant freshman crew at the Henley Regatta.

Roach noted that the gift would help Brown continue one of the nation’s largest and most varied programs of intercollegiate sports. Brown currently offers 17 women’s and 16 men’s intercollegiate varsity teams, as well as a coed varsity golf squad.

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