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Konover Auditorium is Dedicated
Friends, family, and University officials gathered on May
22 to celebrate Doris and Simon Konover
by naming the Dodd Research Center's auditorium in their
honor.
Doris and Simon Konover have been enthusiastic and generous contributors to the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center and to the Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life from the earliest planning stages for these new facilities. Their leadership and support was recognized formally, on May 22, when the Center's auditorium was named in their honor.
The Konovers' generosity, not only to the Dodd Center but also to a wide variety of other humanitarian causes, was acknowledged by religious leaders from the Greater Hartford and national Jewish communities, by President Hartley and Trustee Louise Berry, and by Paul Kolbunicky, speaking for the Libraries and the academic centers. Senator Christopher Dodd, who had planned to perform the official dedication, was unexpectedly detained in Washington, DC, where 60 votes had been scheduled for the same date. Instead, he taped a message to the Konovers and to the audience, and was present via video.
Simon Konover, a survivor of a Nazi labor camp, the Battle of Stalingrad, and the Holocaust, is the founder of Konover Associates, Inc. of West Hartford, one of the largest real estate development firms in the nation. Doris Konover is a graduate of the University of Connecticut, Class of 1950. During this year's commencement exercises, Dr. Konover was honored by the University with the conferral of the Doctor of Humane Letters degree.
The Konover Auditorium already has become one of the University's most attractive venues for public events. In its first full semester of operations, it has been the site of 115 meetings, speeches, and special presentations. Speakers as different as Herbert Gans, Assistant Secretary of State John Shattuck, and Beat poet Gregory Corso have appeared there; and organizations such as the Albert Schweitzer Foundation and the Connecticut Geographic Alliance have found it to be an ideal location for their special programs. The Libraries are pleased to be able to make such a facility available to the community and grateful to the Konovers for their continuing interest and support. For more information about the facilities of the Konover Auditorium and policies for its use, please contact Terri Goldich, 486-3646 or hbladm67@uconnvm.uconn.edu.
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