Death: Carolyn Hoff Lynch, Former Trustee and SAS Overseer |
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October 13, 2015, Volume 62, No. 09 |
Carolyn Hoff Lynch, CW’68, the philanthropist and former Penn Trustee for whom the Carolyn Lynch Laboratory was named, died of complications from acute myeloid leukemia on October 1. She was 69 years old.
“Carolyn was an untiring advocate for education who was admired by the Penn community and all who knew her for her commitment to the life sciences, her dedication to women’s issues and her strong interest in our students and faculty,” noted Penn President Amy Gutmann. Ms. Lynch served on the Board of Trustees from 1997-2007, and was an asset to the Academic Policy, Neighborhood Initiatives and Student Life committees. She was a longtime overseer of the School of Arts & Sciences and a member of the Trustees’ Council of Penn Women and its Fundraising Committee, which she once co-chaired; the Northeast Regional Advisory Board and the planning committee for the celebration of 125 Years of Women at Penn that took place in 2001. When her daughter, Beth, was a student in the College, Ms. Lynch, along with her husband, Peter‚ also served as the founding co-chair of the Parent Leadership Committee.
Ms. Lynch’s legacy to Penn is most clearly evident in the genesis of the Carolyn Lynch Laboratory, the life sciences facility for whose existence she was largely responsible (Almanac February 15, 2005). She had been deeply interested in the life sciences since her student days as a physical therapy major, and in 1996, she convened a group of alumni who were leaders in the biotechnology arena to study Penn’s biology department and determine what actions it should take to best prepare students for careers in emerging life sciences fields. Under Ms. Lynch’s leadership, this Biology Advisory Board spent nearly a decade helping the department enhance its curriculum, planning a technologically advanced facility supporting interdisciplinary collaboration and engaging donors who could help make the building a reality. When her vision was achieved with the facility’s opening in 2006 (Almanac July 11, 2006), the building and the pond in the adjoining James G. Kaskey Memorial Park were named in her honor in gratitude for her leadership, as well as for the Lynch Foundation’s extraordinary $10 million gift in support of the project. Ms. Lynch’s other generous contributions to Penn included a fellowship and term chair in SAS (Almanac October 17, 2000), a chemistry lecture hall and an endowed scholarship.
Ms. Lynch’s tremendous dedication to education was evident outside of Penn as well. As the daughter of an educator, she gave her time and resources to countless academic organizations in the Boston area and beyond. She was a trustee of the Campus School of Boston College, the Gregorian University Foundation and Deerfield Academy; an overseer of the New England Conservatory of Music; and a member of the Education Advisory Committee of the Boys and Girls Club of Boston and the Cell Biology and Pathology Advisory Council of Harvard University.
Moreover, as president of the Lynch Foundation, which supports hundreds of organizations each year, she and Mr. Lynch in 1999 contributed a history-making $10 million gift to the School of Education at Boston College, where Mr. Lynch is a trustee. In recognition of that gift, which at the time was the largest ever to Boston College, the school was named in their honor. They increased their commitment to the Lynch School in 2010 with an additional $20 million to create a Leadership Academy for principals that also bears their name.
Her contributions outside of education included service as a trustee of the Peabody Essex Museum; a director of the Boys and Girls Club of Boston and the Museum Cooperative of Salem; vice chair of the New England Historic Genealogical Society; co-chair of the Marblehead/Swampscott YMCA Capital Campaign and a volunteer for the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities.
Earning a bridge world championship in 2013, she was a renowned “grand life master” of the game, also earning five national titles.
For her leadership and generosity, Ms. Lynch received numerous honors, including honorary degrees from Emmanuel College and Boston College, the Alexis de Tocqueville Award for Leadership from the United Way, the Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam Award from the Society of Jesus New England Province, the Pedro Arrupe Medal for Excellence in Ministry from the Weston Jesuit School of Theology, the Boys and Girls Club of Boston Partners of Youth Award, the Massachusetts Horticultural Society President’s Choice Award, the Saint Julie Billiart Award of the Sisters of Notre Dame and the Papal Honor of Saint Gregory the Great.
Ms. Lynch is survived by her husband, Peter, WG’68, their three daughters, Mary Lynch Witkowski (Erik), Annie Carolyn Lukowski (Scott) and Elizabeth de Montrichard, C’06 (Gonzague); two sisters, Melanie Rapp (David) and Madalin O’Brien (William); six grandchildren; two nephews and a niece.
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