Gemmill Campus Dedication
Delaware Valley College dedicated a new 398-acre campus in Warwick Township, Bucks County, on April 13. The new campus was a gift from the Warwick Foundation and will be named “The Kenneth and Helen Gemmill Campus” in memory of the couple who started the foundation.
“When I accepted the job of president in 2007, I had great aspirations for Delaware Valley College,” President Joseph S. Brosnan said. “Never once did I think that four years later I would be standing at a podium seven miles away dedicating a new 398-acre campus.”
The college intends to use the campus as a “living lab” for its science programs and for other academic purposes.
The land is the former homestead of the Gemmill family. It came as part of a Warwick Foundation gift valued at $30 million. The gift was awarded in September.
Elizabeth H. “Betsy” Gemmill, daughter of Kenneth and Helen and a foundation trustee, attended the dedication along with other family members, including Helen Gemmill, Diana Norris Merchant and Benjamin Gemmill, three grandchildren of Kenneth and Helen who serve as foundation trustees.
Betsy’s daughter Holly Richardson, Kenneth and Helen’s grandchild John Norris, and
Lisa Gemmill, who was married to Betsy’s late brother William, also attended.
Kenneth and Helen Gemmill had a kinship with DelVal and a love for its mission.
Betsy thanked her family saying, “This wasn’t a solo project.” She said her parents greatly valued education.
Her mother was an English teacher. Her father, one of the country’s best-known tax lawyers, loved DelVal and served as chairman of the board of trustees from 1985-1991.
“I know in your hands we are going to educate hundreds of thousands of people,” said Betsy.
She said she looks forward to seeing future generations go to the college and that maybe she’ll even see her grandchildren attend DelVal.
Dr. Brosnan has called the Gemmill gift the “gift of a lifetime.” He said the new campus will help the college move forward as it advances toward university status and strengthens its academic programs.
The campus includes well-maintained buildings, fertile fields and beautiful orchards.
The property is at 741 Grenoble Road, off Almshouse Road. It is a working farm valued at more than $15 million.
As part of the $30 million gift, The Warwick Foundation provided $10 million for operating costs of the new campus and another $5 million in unrestricted funds.
The gift is already having an impact on the college. The Gemmills’ generosity has allowed DelVal to move forward with building its life science center and is supporting the development of graduate programs.
“This is a setting that will inspire students now and for generations to come,” Dr. Brosnan said. “Students will study here, they will learn here, they will meet here. They will do research in this living lab and discover things not found in a classroom.”
President Brosnan called the gift a “supreme gesture of kindness, support and generosity.”
“You have helped Delaware Valley College begin a new era in education,” he told the family. “And in the process made Bucks County stronger.”
Earlier in the day, the college presented Betsy Gemmill with an honorary doctoral degree as part of its annual Founders’ Day celebration.
Betsy’s commitment to the community extends far beyond DelVal. Her work has positively impacted many other organizations such as: The University of Pennsylvania’s museum, the Philadelphia Y.M.C.A. and The Academy of Natural Sciences to name a few.
Dr. Brosnan said the gift is going to help the college achieve things that “in the past could only be dreamed of.”