Rocking the House

If you ask her, Karen Harrower '72 can tell you about every one of her undergraduate research projects. "There was hardly any funding available for hands-on research in those days, and every opportunity we got was a memorable one,"says the retired Air Force major who currently lives in San Antonio. Her favorite project? Lugging a gravity meter around Cape Neddick one summer to research the area's distinctive volcanic origins.

Since she established the Karen L. Harrower Undergraduate Research Fund in 2000, Karen has enjoyed seeing the new opportunities that her endowment provides to today's aspiring earth scientists. "I'm happy to know that my support adds value to a UNH education. Field work can bring the thrill of discovery home to a young student and have a dramatic impact on his or her overall academic experience."

But Karen's gift to the students and the University doesn't stop there. She's also made a provision in her will that will help to build her endowment and ensure similar opportunities for tomorrow's UNH students. "Think of it this way,"she says. " New Hampshire's 'local stones' have been here for hundreds of millions of years, and UNH students have been studying them for only a fraction of that time! I hope that my bequest provides a little more time to unearth the secrets that the rocks have to tell us."