Momentum and gratitude shaped the annual meeting and breakfast for Tower Society members, who gathered to celebrate the impact of planned giving and hear about Lehigh’s latest accomplishments and aspirations.
Held in the Wood Dining Room at Iacocca Conference Center, the event featured energized remarks from Kevin Clayton ’84 P’13, chairman of the Tower Society, and featured guests Nathan Urban, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, and Greg Reihman P’25, vice provost for arts and libraries.
Carl Henzelman III ’82, executive director of planned giving, welcomed a large crowd eager to reconnect before heading to Goodman Stadium for a Lehigh football game.
Clayton began by expressing gratitude for members who “helped make Lehigh what it is today and what it will achieve tomorrow and beyond.”
He underscored their impact since the launch of Go Beyond: The Campaign for Future Makers. “An impressive $423 million has been raised by bequests and life income gifts since the campaign's launch,” he said.
He also highlighted Tower Society members’ contributions during the past fiscal year, when Lehigh raised $92 million. “$23 million came from planned gifts from this group.”
Since becoming chair, Clayton has focused on three priorities: raising visibility, strengthening engagement, and expanding membership. The society welcomed 63 new members in the past fiscal year.
“Thank you for being so generous and giving back to this wonderful institution,” Clayton concluded.
Urban reviewed the university’s accomplishments since the members’ last annual meeting, highlighting undergraduate applications, enrollment growth, research funding, new research centers, AI integration, and teaching innovations.
“We can teach calculus without philanthropy. We've done it for many, many years,” he said. “But with the kinds of support that people in this room are providing, we can give instructors the time and support to innovate, making calculus a course where students can recognize their full potential.”
Urban also described Lehigh’s ambition to attract students whose talents and interests cross traditional disciplinary boundaries.
“We want the very best students to come here. The best engineers, the best mathematicians, the best artists, the best football players, and the best writers,” he said. “But Lehigh is committed to being a place that fosters and promotes interdisciplinary research and teaching and education. So we want to bring to campus the student who is the best accountant and also a concert pianist, or the student who wants to change health care and also loves to build rockets. We want to give them the opportunities they need to become their best selves and, quite frankly, to change the world.”
The arts offer one way to bring this interdisciplinary approach to life. Reihman opened by recalling a performance by Bandaloop, a group of dancers who descended from Fairchild-Martindale Library and danced on the walls.
He recounted how a student described the experience as “beautiful, unexpected, and made her see Lehigh buildings and people differently.”
That reaction reflects a broader vision for arts and libraries: enriching lives through meaningful, memorable, and transformative encounters.
Reihman outlined four pillars to realizing that vision. The first aims to engage more students and community members involved in the arts. The second integrates the arts and libraries across disciplines to help “disrupt everyday routines, spark self-reflection, provide opportunities for innovative thinking, and understanding oneself and one's world.” The third focuses on enhancing wellness, belonging, and success. The last seeks to create spaces for students to connect, find purpose, feel inspired, and perform.
He also described opportunities for Tower Society members to support this vision through investments in people, places, programs, and collections.
“You can demonstrate that Lehigh has a dedicated base of supporters who back our institutional commitment to creativity, to interdisciplinary thinking, to connected communities, and to creating well-rounded, thriving people,” he said.
