Renovations to the iconic Clayton University Center (UC) at Packer Hall will create a dynamic environment for student life while preserving the building’s historic grandeur. Thank you to all the generous donors helping to make the Clayton UC a vibrant space for everyone in the Lehigh community.
For Andrew Handler ’98 ’28P and Kimberly Tedd Handler ’99 ’28P, Lehigh University is much more than their alma mater. It’s where their story began, where they’ve invested time and resources in support of the university, and also where they’ve established a strong bond with their powerful alumni network.
Now, their daughter, Elizabeth “Laney” Handler ’28, continues the family tradition as a first-year student. Says Kimberly, “It’s very assuring sending her to Lehigh, imagining where she’s walking and what buildings she is in, just like we did when we were students.”
One place special to the Handlers back in the day was the University Center. “What we loved about the UC,” says Kimberly, “is that it was the heart of the whole campus. And when we were there, it really was the hub of our student life.” Today, it still is the heart of campus, and even more so now with the just-completed renovations including modern dining options, study spaces, and state-of-the-art meeting rooms, one of which the couple sponsored with a generous donation.
Kimberly remembers when she first visited the Lehigh campus. “I grew up in Pennington, New Jersey, which is 45 minutes from Lehigh. Lots of kids from my area went there, and my mom brought me as a sophomore in high school to visit,” she says. “I fell in love with the campus immediately. It was where I had to go.”
For Andrew, if not for a meeting with a Lehigh alum at his family’s golf club, he might never have chosen South Mountain. Andrew remembers, “I found Lehigh because my parents were friends with Norman Merksamer ’52, a big Lehigh advocate. In talking with him one day at our golf club, he spoke so highly of Lehigh that he steered not only me but many of my golf friends to go there.”
Some years later, after the Handlers graduated, Kimberly and Andrew had lost touch with Lehigh and the friends they made there. Until Andrew met another alum on a golf course. “He was a friend of a friend, and we discovered we were both Lehigh grads. His name was Ken Fuirst ’86,” says Andrew. “We got to talking about Lehigh, and at the end of the game, he told me that I really should get more involved with Lehigh because it’s a vibrant community.” Fuirst gave Andrew a contact, Devin Dobson ’07 M.Ed. ’21. “I contacted Devin, and from that moment we became involved with Lehigh and have been ever since.”
Reconnecting with their alma mater and its alumni network has impacted the Handlers in ways they couldn’t have imagined. “It’s been really fun getting back involved in this school. We’ve seen Ken and so many other alumni at events, and we’ve also hosted a few events at our home,” says Kimberly. “We credit Lehigh with so many things. Meeting each other, our great experiences while students, the progress we’ve made in our lives, and also meeting a whole community of alumni friends.”
So what exactly is it about Lehigh that makes such fervent and enthusiastic alumni? It’s true that it consistently ranks among the best colleges in the nation and is also listed as having one of the strongest alumni networks, right alongside Princeton, Dartmouth, and Fordham.
Says Andrew, “Lehigh really has everything going for it. Great faculty; it’s the right size — with more than 5,000 undergraduates, it’s not too big or too small.” Kimberly adds, “You get a great education for sure, but everyone has fun, [and] there’s a focus on doing well and moving forward in life, and one of the best things is that the alumni network loves seeing other students in the workforce and will do anything to help them,” Kimberly says. “At Lehigh, it’s a relationship that lasts forever.”
