NEWS Release

UNCG ALUMNA DONATES $1 MILLION
TO SCIENCE BUILDING EQUIPMENT FUND

GREENSBORO – Dr. Jaylee Montague Mead, an alumna of The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, has pledged $1 million to help equip the new science building at UNCG.

Dr. Jaylee  Montague Mead

To honor her support, the 300-seat auditorium and adjoining gallery will be named the Jaylee Montague Mead Auditorium and Gallery.

"This gift is further evidence of Jaylee’s steadfast support for science education and UNCG," said Chancellor Pat Sullivan. “Thanks to her generous contribution, our science instruction and research efforts will be better positioned to prepare students for the challenges of the 21st century."

Groundbreaking for the $47.7 million, 170,000-square-foot building is slated for March 12, with completion expected in 2003. Construction is funded with a portion of the Higher Education Bonds approved by North Carolina voters in November. The estimated cost of equipping the building is $5 million, with $1 million coming from the state, and the remainder from private gifts. Thus far, $2.285 million has been raised for equipment.

This is the second substantial gift Mead has made to UNCG in recent years. In 1997, she donated $100,000 to the Second Century Campaign to support the Merit Scholar Program, which provides scholarships to academically talented students.

Mead has retained her connection to UNCG over the years.  She has served on the Alumni Association Board of Trustees as member and vice president, the Excellence Foundation, and the Board of Visitors. At present, she is a member of the Class of 1951 Reunion Gift Committee. In 1995, she was presented with the UNCG Alumni Distinguished Service Award.

Jaylee Montague graduated in 1951 Phi Beta Kappa from what was then known as Woman’s College, with a B.A. magna cum laude in mathematics.

“Woman’s College provided me the opportunity to learn leadership skills and the joy of serving in capacities ranging from waiting tables in the dining room to record-keeping in the Registrar’s Office -- without computers!, she said. "The academic skills I acquired there have served me well throughout my career and made me want to help provide similar opportunities for other young people of today.”

Mead went on to Stanford University to receive an M.A. in education, and then to Georgetown University, where she earned a Ph.D. in astronomy.

In 1959, she was one of the first professional women to be hired by NASA.  During her 33-year tenure at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, she served as mathematician, staff astronomer and assistant chief of the Laboratory for Astronomy & Solar Physics. She established the Goddard Astronomical Data Center, a computerized data bank of stars and galaxies to aid astronomers in determining whether or not the objects they were viewing from space missions had already been identified, or were being discovered for the first time.  During her tenure she received the Goddard Award for Outstanding Service, the Women in Aerospace Lifetime Achievement Award, and the 1986 NASA Medal for Scientific Leadership. She retired in 1992 as Associate Chief of the Space Data & Computing Division.
Currently active in many Washington non-profits, Mead serves on the boards of The Studio Theatre (chair for the past 7 years), Helen Hayes Theatrical Awards, Corcoran College of Art, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers, and the Council on Foundations Committee on Family Foundations.  She is a 1999 graduate of Leadership Washington.

She is married to Dr. Gilbert Mead, who was also employed as a NASA scientist for 25 years.  He has pursued careers in business, science, and most recently, law. He was a trustee of Beloit College in Wisconsin between 1976 and 1986, and a director of Consolidated Papers, Inc. of Wisconsin Rapids from 1974-2000.  He currently serves on the boards of Arena Stage, the Levine School of Music, and the Washington Performing Arts Society.

The Meads have been recognized as among the leading philanthropists in the nation's capital, following their establishment of the Gilbert and Jaylee Mead Family Foundation in 1988. The board includes the Meads and two of their four children.  In 1997, The Washington Times wrote an in-depth profile of the Foundation, describing the range of arts and social welfare causes it has embraced over the years, from a new hospice for children with AIDS, to seed money for arts groups. In 1998, they were presented with the Mayor's Award for Excellence in the Arts and the Washington Post Award for Distinguished Community Service. They were recognized as Washingtonians of the Year in 1999.
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