Adapted from Carolina Spotlight
Peter McCausland has always wanted big things for Carolina, whether it was booking Carol King and James Taylor at the coliseum in the early 1970s or making multimillion-dollar donations to the school decades later.
“I had a great time at USC,” says McCausland, a 1971 graduate and corporate executive whose contributions to Carolina total $2.75 million. “It did a lot for me personally and was a wonderful environment, a friendly environment. I gained a lot of confidence, and it had a major impact on my life after university.”
As chairman and chief executive officer of Airgas Inc., based outside Philadelphia in Radnor, Pa., McCausland has acquired a reputation for, well, making acquisitions. He has, through his more than 320 acquisitions, turned his company into the largest U.S. distributor of specialty and medical gases. He founded Airgas in 1982, and also has served as a partner in the law firm of McCausland, Keen & Buckman.
At Carolina, he has a reputation for giving back. He recently donated $1.75 million to help fund the Research Center of Economic Excellence in Brain Imaging, a statewide health collaborative that includes USC. The University's state-of-the-art, high-field MR imaging center was dedicated April 5, 2006, as the McCausland Center for Brain Imaging, and a new 3T MRI scanner was unveiled.
In 2002, McCausland, a history major, donated $1 million to the former College of Liberal Arts—now part of the College of Arts & Sciences—to help recruit and retain faculty. Most notably, Prof. Don Doyle was recently recruited from Vanderbilt as McCausland Professor of History.
“Giving is important to me because I can never repay the University for what it's given me,” McCausland says. “I feel like that's my obligation.”
McCausland wanted to help lead the way on funding the University's research efforts. “I felt like there was a great opportunity to attract other gifts and donations if I could provide the leadership gift, and that has, in fact, happened,” he says. “I'm very pleased with that. I think research is important to any major university, especially USC. That's a strategy, and I wanted to support the strategy because I think it's a good one.”
In addition to his donations to Carolina, he manages his philanthropic activities as vice president of The McCausland Foundation.
At Carolina, he wrote for The Gamecock, played intramural sports, was an officer of Sigma Nu fraternity, and was president of the Inter-Fraternity Council, a position he used to help book popular acts such as King, Taylor, and Chicago to the Carolina Coliseum.
McCausland wound up at Carolina by chance. A friend was on tennis scholarship at Carolina, and McCausland visited him for several days, liked what he saw, applied, and was accepted.
McCausland is a sailing, squash, and fly-fishing enthusiast and splits his time between Philadelphia and Nantucket, where he sails competitively during the summers. He and his wife, Bonnie, have two children, Christopher and Lizzie.
As for his trademark fashion statement, he says he's leading the way for Carolina there as well. “I always wear bowties,” he says. “I've worn them my whole life. I think President Sorensen is actually copying me.” |
