Paternos give $3.5 million gift

Another 47 years of coaching is how Penn State football coach Joe Paterno and his wife Sue will fund a $3.5 million gift to the University, Sue Paterno joked at the University Board of Trustees meeting Friday, where the gift was announced.

"I guess Joe has to work another 47 years so we can do it again," she said.

The gift brings the Paternos' lifetime donations to the University to $4 million, said University President Graham Spanier, including funding for an addition to Pattee.

Of the gift, $2 million will be used for:

-- a professorship in the University Libraries.

-- a professorship in the College of Liberal Arts.

-- a graduate fellowship and undergraduate scholarship in the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture named in honor of Sue Paterno's mother, Alma Heinz Pohland, and in memory of her father, August Pohland.

-- a graduate fellowship in the College of Liberal Arts named in memory of Joe Paterno's parents, Angelo and Florence Paterno.

-- a scholarship in the classics in the College of Liberal Arts named in honor of the Rev. Thomas Bermingham, S.J., a high school teacher who fostered Joe Paterno's love of the classics.

An additional $1 million has been allocated for a new interfaith spiritual center and $250,000 will help build the new All-Sports Hall of Fame. The remaining $250,000 will be designated at a later time.

The designations were determined not just by the University's needs, but are reflective of the Paternos' interests.

Both Paternos have a degree in literature and said they wanted to contribute to the classics. And the fellowships in memory of their parents reflect their fathers' professions -- Angelo Paterno was a lawyer and August Pohland was an architect. The spiritual faith center is a project Sue Paterno has been working on constantly and the hall of fame is a project Joe Paterno said he feels strongly about. They also selected programs that needed financial help, Sue Paterno said.

"I feel, as I read somewhere, to live the good life, we have to make sure that others have at least a decent life," Joe Paterno said to the trustees, who gave him a standing ovation.

With all of their children out of college, except for one son in law school, and because of their modest lifestyle, the Paternos said they wanted to and could afford to give back to the community that had given them so much.

"I never got into coaching to make money. I just wanted to take care of my family," Joe Paterno said. "I make far more money than I should for doing something that I love."

They both talked about how welcoming the community has been to their family. Over the years, the Paternos have tried to donate whatever they could, Sue Paterno, a University graduate, explained.

"When we could give $25, we gave $25," she said. "And I think that's how we have to start."

She hopes this will not be the last donation they make, she added.

Despite their desire to return something to the University, the Paternos did not want to make the gift public, but were persuaded to because of the generosity it shows and the example it might set.

"To the best of my knowledge, no college coach anywhere at any time has given such a gift," Spanier said. "It says a little bit about Penn State and a lot about the Paternos."