The department gratefully acknowledges Dr. Gary (PhD, ’79) and Mary Molyneaux for establishing an endowment fund to support geography and GIS doctoral students. Molyneaux studied geography, urban planning, and landscape architecture with Professor John Jakle and went on to a distinguished career in the public and private sectors and higher education. He continues as a public policy advocate for transportation, urban design, and planning in his home state of Washington and at the national level.

Gary credits his career to the education, faculty, and resources he found in the department and across campus and he continues to be devoted to the University Library, “the best in the country,” he remarked.

“Geography provided me with the models, methods, and tools to organize and analyze not only data, but decision-making, goal development, and strategic pathways for successful project and program implementation,” said Molyneaux. “The department’s strong emphasis on writing and presentation skills played a key role in my first major position with the Pacific Northwest’s largest architecture and design firm, and it soon became clear to me that geographers and architects speak the same spatial language.”

Molyneaux is a founding member of the American Association of Geographers’ Applied Geography Specialty Group and received the Applied National Honor Award in 1996. He has served on several National Science Foundation Transportation Research Board expert panels and was vice-chair of the Urban Land Institute’s research committee. He was also a journal referee for the Annals of the AAG and Professional Geographer and continues to serve on the local arrangements committee for AAG annual meetings held in the Pacific Northwest.

Gary and Mary Molyneaux have joined the University of Illinois Foundation President’s Council in accordance with this generous gift to the department.