June 19, 2014
To the Carnegie Mellon University Community:
I am pleased to announce that Pittsburgh business and civic leader Richard P. Simmons has made a generous new gift of $7.5 million to Carnegie Mellon University for a major auditorium to be built on the university’s new Tepper Quadrangle.
The Simmons Auditorium fills an enormous need at CMU. It is planned to be the largest auditorium space at Carnegie Mellon, and it will be an important resource for the entire university community. It will be a spectacular anchor for the Tepper Quad’s multidisciplinary activities, and as the location for major events, conferences, speeches, classes, and performances. It will also be designed to be divisible into smaller spaces for classes and other programs.
I have known Dick for more than 20 years, and have had the privilege of holding the Richard P. Simmons Professorship in Materials Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1993 to 2002. As a beneficiary of Dick’s earlier philanthropy, I can personally attest to his vision and thoughtful approach to making such gifts.
For more details on this generous gift, please see the news release.
I know that the entire CMU community shares my gratitude to Dick and Ginny Simmons, and I look forward to the day when we can celebrate the first event along with Dick and Ginny in the new Simmons Auditorium at Carnegie Mellon University.
With my warmest wishes,
Subra Suresh
President
Carnegie Mellon University