Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Chemistry Building

Robert and Jane Meyerhoff were honored for a partnership in philanthropy that began in 1945 and created a national legacy across the arts and sciences. Baltimore natives born in 1924, they came of age during the Great Depression and World War II and belonged to a generation that believed in giving back to community and country. Robert Meyerhoff served in the war, trained as a civil engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, joined his family’s construction business on returning home, and later founded Hendersen-Webb, a construction and property management company known for creating communities centered on quality and value. Jane Meyerhoff graduated from Goucher College, and together the couple also assembled an outstanding collection of post-World War II art that they planned to give to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Their support helped establish UMBC as a leader in excellence and diversity and as one of the nation’s leading producers of chemists and biochemists from all backgrounds. Their most significant educational contribution was the Meyerhoff Scholars Program at UMBC, created in 1988, which began as an effort to address the under-representation of African-American men in science and engineering and grew into a diverse program for men and women from varied backgrounds who are dedicated to advancing minorities in those fields. Nationally acclaimed, the program has produced many high-achieving minority students in science and engineering, encouraged them to pursue advanced degrees at prestigious graduate and professional schools, and been strengthened by the couple’s personal interest and pride in the scholars. The Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Chemistry Building was dedicated on October 21, 2005.

Catonsville, Maryland · United States