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February 2006
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ALUMNI PROFILE |
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Seeing the Big Picture
Abramson, who is celebrating his 20th year of service to the AU Board of Trustees (BoT) and was named chair in October, has spent literally thousands of hours in physical therapy since the random bacterial infection took him from an active healthy life to emergency spinal surgery in a matter of days back in 2001. “I’m one of the lucky ones who got out of the wheelchair,” he says. “Most of the others I went through physical therapy with are still in it.” Long involved in his family’s real estate development business, the Tower Companies (known for such projects as White Flint Mall in Rockville, the Blair Apartments in Silver Spring, and Washington Square in downtown D.C.), Abramson has gotten back to most of the daily tasks he was handling before he became sick. “Luckily it’s a family business. I have a brother who’s involved, my father is 88 and he’s still involved, and all three of my kids are involved – including Marnie,” who got her bachelor’s from SOC in 1997. He and his wife Pennie, divide their time between Florida and D.C. When he’s in the Sunshine State during the winter months, Abramson takes advantage of the latest technology and participates regularly in video conferences – both for real estate and AU business. And, like many, he relies on e-mail and his cell phone to stay connected on everything in between. While he may not be in an office environment full-time, there’s no doubt Abramson’s back to business. Despite the fact that he still has tingling in his hands and feet, back pain, and other physical symptoms, he refuses to let it limit him. “Even with all that, I stay busy and have been very busy with American trying to help out in these trying times.” Deeply committed to AU and the other areas in his life that have shaped him, Abramson has volunteered countless hours for the AU Board of Trustees over the years, chaired the Campaign Committee for several years, and he donated $1 million to name the Abramson Family Recital Hall in the new Katzen Arts Center. He also serves on the board at SunTrust Bank, the Weitzmann Institute of Science in Israel, and the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis (which is affiliated with the hospital where he went through surgery and recovery). “I try to help out in the areas I was affected by and I can pay back some,” he says. Abramson, who attended Bethesda-Chevy Chase high school and began his college career at University of Miami before transferring to AU, estimates he received as many as a hundred e-mails in a day related to AU matters at the height of the public scrutiny over former President Benjamin Ladner’s departure and related severance. Sure, admits the native Washingtonian, it would have been much easier to walk away from the whole situation and say, ‘who needs this.’ “But I’m here I am working hard,” affirms the long-time AU volunteer. “Ironically, all of this happened at a time when AU is prospering the most. We’ve never had an endowment over $300 million as it is today. Twenty-some years ago it was $20 million. We didn’t have the facilities like the Greenberg Theatre and the Katzen Arts Center. The campus looks great! Physically, the landscaping, the signage…it’s never looked better. Even with everything that happened, freshman applications were greater this year than last year,” he says with obvious pride in his alma mater. Abramson doesn’t try to sugar-coat what happened last fall. He admits Dr. Ladner’s expenses were not as thoroughly audited as they should have been, and that the entire board wasn’t as informed as it should have been about the details of the former president’s disputed contract. The board was “looking at the big picture, expanding the university into more of a global university, and building up the school,” he says, not counting each trip or bottle of wine. But when they were notified that some things might be awry, the board quickly hired an auditor to investigate. “We have done internal audits, we have changed procedures to have more safeguards, we have audited all of the vice presidents,” he says. “We invited members of all the campus constituencies to all the meetings… We’ve actually made a lot of progress… We have had several meetings with alumni and met with the Alumni Board, and they were very helpful.” On March 3, he’ll take part in a roundtable discussion on Capitol Hill with Interim President Neil Kerwin, SPA/BA ’71, and a few other AU administrators who were invited to meet with the Senate Finance Committee staff to discuss not-for-profit reform. Regardless of what comes from that meeting, he will continue to lead the BoT and its various committees in studying what other universities do, and finding best practices for governance. “A crisis is a terrible thing to waste,” states Abramson. “We have to learn from it and see what we can do to avoid it again. The university is in very good shape and the board that is here is very committed. Probably as a result of this, the board is closer than we’ve ever been. We’re much more engaged, and having much more meaningful, caring discussions about the university.” Abramson welcomes alumni to submit the names of individuals they think would make good candidates for future board members to aubot@american.edu. -Melissa Reichley |
It’s
been nearly five years since Gary Abramson, SPA/BA ’68,
got a staph infection that left him paralyzed, unable to move most of
his body, or feed himself. But like many who go through a challenging
time, his resolve to make the best of a bad situation is palpable.