ON THE MOVE


With help from its friends, the Case School of Engineering is moving to a new home.

Thanks to the generosity of Eric (CSAS ’39) and Jane (GRS ’76, art education) Nord, the Case School of Engineering is about to have new headquarters. The Nords’ recent gift of $5 million allows the school to convert Enterprise Hall into the new physical and intellectual hub of engineering education. (See Home Pages in this issue.) Enterprise Hall, opened in 1988, had been the home of the University’s Weatherhead School of Management, before that school’s move to the new Peter B. Lewis Building this fall.

Family values: Jane and Eric Nord

Historically, offices for the engineering school’s dean, extracurricular groups, faculty, and staff have been scattered throughout various buildings on the Case quadrangle. When offices are relocated in 2003, academic and administrative functions will be centralized. The inclusion of new study rooms, common areas for students, and a large open atrium will serve to create gathering places for all and to enhance the sense of community for the engineering school as a whole.

Why is this project important to Mr. Nord? “I thought it was time that the engineering school had a home of its own,” he says. “And the building was available.” This direct response is indicative of the Nords’ attitude toward philanthropy. An attitude that focuses clearly on the issues that are important to them.

The new quarters will have an impact on engineering education for years to come, but this is not the first time the Nord family has made such an impact at Case Western Reserve. Eric and Jane Nord, the Nord Family Foundation, the Eric and Jane Nord Foundation, and the Nordson Foundation all have contributed greatly to the University and the community at large.

Their gifts to CWRU include the following, as well as many other programs at the College of Arts and Sciences and the Case School of Engineering:

• The Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities in the College of Arts and Sciences, and the renovation of Clark Hall, the building in which the center is located;
• The Nord Professorship in Computer Engineering;
• The Jane Baker Nord Scholarship Fund for the Art Education Graduate Program;
• The Nord Assistant Professorship in Engineering;
• The Walter Nord Program at UCITE, the University Center for Innovation in Teaching and Education.

While the Nords have shown enormous support for CWRU, their generosity doesn’t end at the University. Oberlin College, Amherst Schools, and numerous others have benefited from their commitment to education. In fact, it was Jane Nord’s interest in arts education that led her to get her master’s degree in that field at CWRU. Believing that the visual arts play a key role in a person’s development, Mrs. Nord organized art classes in her Oberlin home for local schoolchildren who might not otherwise receive enough exposure. “It wasn’t until my own children entered school that I realized there needed to be more available in the way of art classes, so I set up shop in our basement. People came, and, after awhile, I felt a need for more formal training in art education.”

This ability to reach out to the community, not only through financial generosity, but also through work with assorted organizations, is one example of the way the Nords share their success. Their interests are varied, and their contributions to numerous projects involving social services, civic affairs, arts and culture, and education have had an enormous effect on their hometown of Oberlin, the people of Lorain County, and all of northeastern Ohio.

Family Tradition


Eric and Jane Nord both come from a long line of CWRU alumni. Mrs. Nord’s great aunt Helen M. Smith graduated from the College for Women of Western Reserve University—later Flora Stone Mather College—in 1894. (She went on to serve as dean of the college from 1914 to 1941.) Next, Mrs. Nord’s uncle Frank Smith Baker graduated from Adelbert College in 1901, just two years before Mr. Nord’s aunt Elizabeth Christy Nord graduated from the College for Women, in 1903. Together, Mr. and Mrs. Nord are related to more than a dozen alumni—including their daughter, Virginia Nord Barbato, FSM ’72—of the various schools that now make up Case Western Reserve University.

Eric Nord’s father, Walter Nord, graduated from Adelbert College in 1908 and Case School of Applied Science in 1909. He later went on to become president of the US Automatic Corporation. Eric and his brother, Evan Nord (CSAS ’41), attended Case as well. In 1954, they formed the Nordson Corporation as a subsidiary of US Automatic to produce and market airless spray equipment.

Since 1954, the Nordson Corporation has grown from a local to a multinational organization with nearly 4,000 employees worldwide. Eric Nord served as president from 1954 to 1974, chief executive officer from 1975 to 1983, and was granted more than 25 US patents during his career.

Listed below are the Nord family members who are graduates of the University:

Helen M. Smith, College for Women 1894, WRU ’38 (honorary), dean emerita
Frank Smith Baker, ADL ’01
Gertrude Vilas Baker, College for Women ’03
Elizabeth Christy Nord, College for Women ’03
Herman Joel Nord, LAW ’04
Walter Nord, ADL ’08, CSAS ’09
Alfred C. Body, CSAS ’37
Sarah Nord Davidson, FSM ’38
Evan Nord, CSAS ’41
William E. Davidson Jr., MED ’68
Hilde Body Clark, NUR ’69
Terence James Clark, LAW ’69
Virginia Nord Barbato, FSM ’72
Randall Barbato, WRC ’73, GRS ’91

True BlueCWRU

Sponsored by CWRU’s Office of Development and Alumni Affairs, True Blue CWRU is dedicated to highlighting CWRU’s supporters and what their generosity allows the University community to achieve.

This installment of True Blue CWRU was written by Heidi Adams Cool, director of communications in the Office of University Programs and Events.

For more information on development programs and alumni activities and events, visit the development and alumni affairs website at www.cwru.edu/development/alum2/.

Photograph by Michael Sands, CWRU