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The Wick Magazine
Sally’s husband is equally enthusiastic. “Jim
is a very curious person, a true problem
solver,” Tim says. “He wants to know how
everything works.”
These sound like the traits of a natural
innovator and entrepreneur. And so when
President Margaret L. Drugovich P’12 asked
the Herberts for a major gift in support of
collaboration and innovation at Hartwick,
they didn’t hesitate. “Tim and I accepted
the opportunity to nourish and develop this
approach at Hartwick — to make innovation
a priority, put it on a pedestal, and really
draw attention to it,” Sally says. “Then we
turned it into an opportunity to celebrate
the individual that is my dad.”
The Herberts’ tribute gift is a $1.25
million investment in outside-the-box
thinking and programming at Hartwick
College. President Drugovich calls the
couple’s generosity “extraordinary, and an
inspiration to us all.”
The Griffiths Center for Collaboration &
Innovation is the umbrella for Hartwick’s
Makerspace in Stevens-German Library, a
planned Entrepreneurship Hub (e-Hub) in
Golisano Hall, the new Fabrication
(Fab) Lab in Anderson Center for the Arts,
future Innovation Stations across campus,
and curricular innovations spearheaded by
the faculty.
“These important initiatives are designed
to encourage cross-disciplinary thinking
that will help us meet our educational
mission to inspire curiosity, creativity,
and critical thinking,” says the President.
“We are indebted to Sally and Tim for this
latest expression of their confidence in and
commitment to Hartwick.”
“Our ultimate goal is to strengthen the
College,” explains Tim of the couple’s
investment, “and to contribute to what
kids these days need and want. Learning to
innovate and collaborate are some of the
most marketable skills today. The liberal arts
boils down to this.”
To learn about how you can contribute to
innovative and collaborative initiatives at
Hartwick, please contact Vice President Gregg
Fort at
fortg@hartwick.eduor 607-431-4045.
Honoring One,
Inspiring Many
The Makerspace in Stevens-German Library:
the first Innovation Station to be part of the
Griffiths Center for Collaboration & Innovation
at Hartwick College.
Jim and Sally Griffiths celebrate her Hartwick
graduation in 1988.
Jim Griffiths P’88. The name may not be familiar yet, but it will.
In his own quiet way, he is a man of influence. A businessman and a devoted
family man, Jim Griffiths is “an intellectual who immerses himself and
challenges himself every day.” So says his daughter, Hartwick Trustee Sally
Griffiths Herbert ’88. “My dad’s the most creative and innovative person I know;
I love the way his mind works,” she says, adding, “I’m really proud of being a
Griffiths.”