Achievement, generosity and a vision that marries art and science were honored June 15 as Robert and Margrit Mondavi visited campus to help dedicate the site of a much-anticipated academic and research facility and to receive the campus's utmost thanks as recipients of the UC Davis medal.
Instituted in 2002, the UC Davis Medal is the highest honor the campus accords. It acknowledges contributions to the university or the broader community of learning.
During a dinner ceremony June 15 Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef presented the Mondavis with medals, recognizing the couple for lifelong accomplishments and shared university values and for their efforts to enhance the quality of life through the arts and science.
"Your belief in this campus has inspired and emboldened us to reach even higher, to believe we're capable of even more," Vanderhoef said. "You have demonstrated that innovation and excellence are worthy and reachable goals, that universities like ours are deserving of investment, that the sciences and the arts are essential and compatible companions, and that each of us -- no matter our calling in life -- is capable of and responsible for creating a legacy."
One of many people on hand for the day's events, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, a UC Davis alumna, also praised the Mondavis. "Tonight we celebrate a lifetime of self-made achievement and selfless generosity," she said.
The Mondavis gave $35 million to campus in 2001, with $10 million going toward the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts and $25 million establishing the Robert Mondavi Institute for Food and Wine Science.
Through their gifts, the Mondavi vision marries science and art as it honors achievement, said HArCS Dean Elizabeth Langland. "It understands that to be alive is more than merely breathing. It recognizes that, as human beings, we have needs of both body and spirit, and it seeks fulfilling and creative answers to those needs: in wine, food, and the arts. And, yes, it celebrates a life that is deeply and richly informed."
Ground-breaking for the institute's academic building is planned for spring 2005, just west of the parking structure next to Mondavi Center.
The $85 million institute will house viticulture and enology, and food science and technology, replacing teaching and research facilities that are 50 years old. The complex will include a 127,000-square-foot academic building with classrooms, labs and offices; a 14,000-square-foot food science laboratory; and a 46,000-square-foot teaching and research winery. The winery is expected to cost $16.5 million; the brewery/food science lab will be $12 million; and the academic building roughly $56.5 million.
The Anheuser-Busch Foundation has provided $5 million to help construct a brewing and food science lab. And passage of Proposition 55 in March is providing more than $33 million for the project.
Robert Mondavi said that through the performing arts center and institute gifts he simply wants to give back to a campus that has over the decades developed expertise and research that made it possible for him to be successful.
"The best investment I've made is right here at UC Davis -- for what you've been doing with your heart and soul. I had the vision and the faith, and you certainly haven't let me down. UC Davis is going places."
Earlier in the day, the Mondavis also helped dedicate the institute construction site by joining in the planting of a grapevine.
Clare Hasler, executive director of the Robert Mondavi Institute, emceed the afternoon dedication. Speakers also included Neal Van Alfen, dean of UC Davis' College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, who recalled the high level of excitement among the college's faculty members on the day the Mondavis' gift for the institute was announced.
"The faculty understood what the gift meant because they had been planning and worrying about (a new facility) for some time - so they truly understood how transforming this gift would be for their programs," he said.
"Bob and Margrit, you have provided us with a wonderful legacy, both in vision and through your generosity of spirit," Van Alfen added.
The UC Davis Medal has been awarded only three times before - in May 2002, to former UC regents Roy Brophy and Alice Gonzales, and this spring to businessman-philanthropist Charles Soderquist, a former chair of the UC Davis Foundation and president of the Cal Aggie Alumni Association.