Penn Stater - Br. Robert Eberly '39 story from Sept./Oct.

Robert Eberly '39

This story appeared in the October 2004 issue of the Penn Stater

Robert Eberly '39What am I suppose to be doing? What should I be doing next? These are the questions that Robert Eberly '39 Sci would stay up at night pondering, says wife of 21 years, Elouise. "He was always thinking about what he could do to make the community better, make the hospital better, make the colleges better."

Some of what Eberly gave to make Penn State better is quietly at work in the University's Eberly College of Science, where a $10 million gift in 1986 created eight endowed chairs and one professorship. Closer to Eberly' home of Uniontown, Pa. - and perhaps closer to his heart - were his many gifts to Penn State's Fayette campus, which Eberly, along with his parents Orville and Ruth, helped to establish in 1965. His gifts to Fayette included scholarships, endowed chairs, and most recently, $6.9 million to establish a community center for cultural, social, and athletic events. This past March, at the behest of Penn State's Board of Trustees, the campus was renamed Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus.

Eberly made his fortune in natural gas, oil exploration, and, later, banking. But despite his wealth and prestige, ha saw himself as no different from anyone else. "I was just lucky," he would tell Janet Guthrie 92a Bus, his personal assistant. At the office, Eberly had an open-door policy: As long as he wasn't in a meeting, Guthrie says, he would take a phone call or see anyone who stopped in to talk to him.

Any Avid reader, Eberly devoured everything from the latest biography on Benjamin Franklin to John Grisham novels to the Harry Potter series. He embraced technology - and, in recent years, eBay - with glee. Particularly enamored of cloisonne, he would bid on expensive vases to donate to charitable organizations for auctions. He also bought beads and jewelry on eBay for the nurses and staff at Uniontown Hospital, where he was also a major donor. "Everything he bought on eBay, he gave away," Guthrie says.

Eberly and the Eberly Foundation were among Penn State's biggest donors, having contributed more than $40 million in gifts. They also gave generously to other schools, including California University of Pennsylvania, West Virginia University, Carnegie Melon University, and the University of Pittsburgh. Eberly often told his wife, "I only wish I had more money to give away."

Eberly, 85, died in Uniontown on May 19. His first wife, Elizabeth Mitchell Eberly, preceded him in death. In addition to Elouise, he i survived by two sons, three stepsons, two stepdaughters, 19 grandchildren, four great-grandchildren, and a sister. - Sally Ann Flecker