{"64829":{"#nid":"64829","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Lessons Learned: Nash Children\u2019s Philanthropy Instilled by Their Parents","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EIn the Nash family, Tech was a key\nelement in two life lessons \u2014the ability of education to change people\u2019s lives\nand the responsibility to give back through volunteer work and philanthropy.\nBecause of those lessons, the Institute now has a Harold R. and Mary Anne Nash\nProfessor in Industrial and Systems Engineering. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;Pinar Keskinocak, co-director of\nthe Center for Health and Humanitarian Logistics, associate director of\nresearch in the Health Systems Institute and professor in the H. Milton Stewart\nSchool of Industrial and Systems Engineering, became the first Nash professor\nin July. The professorship was created and funded in honor of Harold R., EE 52,\nand Mary Anne Nash by the three of their four children who are graduates of\nTech: Ron Nash, IE 70, of Dallas, a partner in InterWest Partners; Mike Nash,\nIE 74, of Concord, N.C., president of Akabis; and Deborah Nash Harris, IE 78,\nretired senior vice president of Microsoft Corp. Keskinocak\u2019s research focuses\non supply chain management, with an emphasis on resource allocation, and she is\nactively engaged in research and applications in health care and humanitarian\nlogistics. The Nash family said Keskinocak\u2019s groundbreaking work in\nhumanitarian logistics will benefit from these funds, and the victims of natural\ndisasters will benefit as supplies and critical equipment are delivered quickly\ninto disaster areas. \u201cI\u2019m excited about the work Pinar is doing. We got a lot\nof leverage from this donation because she\u2019s working with a number of\ncharitable organizations, particularly in humanitarian logistics. Her work is\nvery valuable,\u201d Deborah Nash Harris said. Harold Nash was a lifetime\ncontributor to Roll Call, the Alumni Association\u2019s annual fund, and a volunteer\nleader in a number of educational, civic and religious organizations. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;All three children have followed\nthis model by consistently giving to Roll Call and to other Georgia Tech needs\nand requests, as well as by providing volunteer leadership to various\norganizations at the Institute. Ron Nash said he, his brother and his sister\nvalue the pride for Georgia Tech instilled in them by their parents. \u201cBut we\nalso valued what Georgia Tech gave to them. Their story is not unique but still\npretty incredible, and an important part was played by a Georgia Tech legend.\u201d Harold\nNash enrolled at Tech after World War II using the GI Bill to finance his\neducation. He and Mary Anne married shortly before he began classes. \u201cThey had\nlittle money and could get no financial help from my grandparents. Mother was\nworking during the day, and they had paper routes in the early morning and\nevening to generate additional money. They even qualified to live in subsidized\ngovernment housing,\u201d Ron said. \u201cI was born the spring of my dad\u2019s freshman\nyear, and Dad switched to night classes so he could also work during the day,\u201d\nhe continued. \u201cMy grandparents pitched in by keeping me as my parents worked.\nBy the time Dad got to be a junior, he had to attend his EE classes during the\nday with Mother continuing to work.\u201d Mike was born during the spring of their\nfather\u2019s senior year. With two little ones, their mother was going to have to\ngive up her job to care for them. Without his wife\u2019s full-time income, Harold\nwas going to have to drop out \u2014 with one quarter left to earn his degree.\nHarold went to the Dean of Students Office to withdraw from Tech. Dean George\nGriffin refused to sign the withdrawal papers.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u201cDean Griffin asked him how much\nmoney he needed to finish the quarter and get out,\u201d Ron said. \u201cAnd Dad told him\nhe needed $1,000. Dean Griffin said, \u2018I\u2019m not going to sign this. You can come\nback tomorrow for me to sign it.\u2019 Dad was upset that he had to come back a\nsecond day and did not understand why Dean Griffin would not sign the\nwithdrawal form. \u201cHe came back the next day to get Dean Griffin\u2019s signature. To\nhis complete surprise, Dean Griffin handed him a check for $1,000. He\u2019d gone to\nthe Atlanta Rotary Club and gotten someone to put up a $1,000 loan for my\nfather so he could finish his education at Georgia Tech,\u201d Ron said. \u201cDad\ngraduated, paid back the loan and in later years joined the Rotary Club and\nbecame president.\u201d The siblings agreed that Dean Griffin helped change the path\nfor the entire Nash family.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u201cIt took a family that never had a\nhigh school graduate up to consistently having college graduates in one\ngeneration,\u201d Ron said. \u201cThat\u2019s one of the reasons we wanted to honor our\nparents. That first Tech degree made a spectacular impact on our family and on\nmultiple generations.\u201d \u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;All three of the siblings have had\nchildren of their own graduate from Tech. Deborah\u2019s son, Andrew Willingham, got\na master\u2019s in music technology in 2010. Ron\u2019s son, David Nash, received two\ndegrees in 2003, in mechanical engineering and international affairs. Mike is\nthe father of two Tech alums, Jennifer Tench, Arch 02, and Michael Nash Jr., MS\nOR 05.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EThe fourth Nash sibling, Mary\nAlice, continued the family Tech tradition by marrying Arthur Ivey, CE 81, and\nhaving a son, Benjamin Ivey, who is a current Tech student majoring in chemical\nengineering.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;Talk of honoring their parents with\na professorship began in the late 1990s, in the midst of Tech\u2019s previous\ncapital campaign. As with the latest campaign, Ron and Deborah served on the\nsteering committee. \u201cI was trying to figure out what to give,\u201d Ron said. \u201cI thought,\n\u2018Deborah and Mike are also going to be contributing. What if we all got\ntogether? We could give something even more important.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;Mike said their mother, now in her\n80s, was \u201cproud and very pleased\u201d when she learned of the professorship and the\nwoman appointed to the post. Harold Nash died in 1991. \u201cBut we know he would\nhave been honored by his children doing this in his name,\u201d Mike said. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;Much has changed at Georgia Tech\nsince Harold Nash\u2019s days on campus. \u201cIt has retained elements that are important\n\u2014 very rigorous academics, the need to be tough, to persevere,\u201d Deborah said.\n\u201cBut I think the curriculum now includes more liberal arts content and more\nfocus on communications and teamwork, which are so important to career\nsuccess.\u201d Ron said Tech is \u201cstill a stamina contest. That\u2019s great for business.\nBut it\u2019s broader now. If you go back to our dad right after World War II, not\nonly was it all male, it was much like a military college. That was the style.\u201d\nMike considered how things have changed since the 1970s. \u201cI began classes with\na slide rule. I ended with a $99 Bomar Brain, a four-function calculator,\u201d \u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;He said. \u201cThe subject matter is not\nthat different, but the way that the educational process takes place now with\ntechnology is so different.\u201d Ron said, in addition to academics, he learned\nabout people and leadership. \u201cI don\u2019t think I would have gotten as broad of a\nleadership background at other universities as I got here,\u201d he said. \u201cI think\nthat\u2019s been far more valuable in business. Three more calculus classes would\nhave done nothing for my career.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EThis\narticle first appeared in the January \/ February 2011 Issue of the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/issuu.com\/gtalumni\/docs\/janfeb2011?mode=a_p\u0022\u003EGeorgia Tech Alumni Magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/em\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/issuu.com\/gtalumni\/docs\/janfeb2011?mode=a_p\u0022\u003E.\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EIn the Nash family, Tech was a key\nelement in two life lessons \u2014the ability of education to change people\u2019s lives\nand the responsibility to give back through volunteer work and philanthropy.\nBecause of those lessons, the Institute now has a Harold R. and Mary Anne Nash\nProfessor in Industrial and Systems Engineering.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Lessons Learned: Nash Children\u2019s Philanthropy Instilled by Their Parents"}],"uid":"27328","created_gmt":"2011-03-08 14:49:53","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:08:22","author":"Edie Cohen","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2011-03-08T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2011-03-08T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"64830":{"id":"64830","type":"image","title":"(L to R) Ron Nash (IE 1970), Deborah Nash Harris (IE 1978), and Mike Nash (IE 1974).","body":null,"created":"1449176765","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:06:05","changed":"1475894571","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:42:51","alt":"(L to R) Ron Nash (IE 1970), Deborah Nash Harris (IE 1978), and Mike Nash (IE 1974).","file":{"fid":"192106","name":"nash.JPG","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/nash_1.JPG","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/nash_1.JPG","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":37941,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/nash_1.JPG?itok=Qw5MHogY"}}},"media_ids":["64830"],"groups":[{"id":"1242","name":"School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISYE)"}],"categories":[{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"}],"keywords":[{"id":"109","name":"Georgia Tech"},{"id":"426","name":"isye"},{"id":"10136","name":"Nash Professorship"},{"id":"1239","name":"Pinar Keskinocak"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:barbara.christopher@isye.gatech.edu\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EBarbara \nChristopher\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIndustrial and Systems Engineering\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E404.385.3102\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}