UB engineering grad gives $10K to student emergency fund

Earlier this month, UB shifted to online learning to limit the spread of COVID-19.

While prudent and necessary, the move has left some of the university’s most vulnerable students with limited access to food, housing, technology and other critical resources.

To ensure these students’ needs are met, UB alumnus Stephen Still has donated $10,000 to UB’s student emergency funds. The gift, part of an overall $22,155 raised as of Monday afternoon, supports UB’s $650 million Boldly Buffalo fundraising campaign.

“Higher education, especially great public research universities like the University at Buffalo, has the power to transform lives. It certainly did for me,” says Still, who graduated from UB with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in 1976. “So many UB students and their families are struggling just now. I hope this gift will inspire others to donate, and help make sure students have the resources they need to complete their studies and become the next generation of leaders.”

Rodney M. Grabowski, vice president for university advancement, says the gift will have an immediate and tangible impact on UB students and help the university community remain strong during difficult times.

“I have been so inspired by the number of alumni and friends who have reached out to ask, ‘how can I help UB and UB students during this time,’” Grabowski says. “That Stephen came forward as one of the first donors to this new student emergency initiative is no surprise. He is incredibly committed to UB and our students.”

Still co-founded, managed, then sold two successful companies: Seabury Airline Planning Group LLC and Diio LLC.

In late 2017, he donated $4 million to create an endowment to support the Institute for Sustainable Transportation and Logistics (ISTL), a center that unites the UB engineering and management schools to address the growing new field of transportation, logistics and supply-chain management.

In recognition of Still’s generosity, UB renamed the institute the Stephen Still Institute for Sustainable Transportation and Logistics.