Heidelberg College grad, spouse give $1M to school

10/29/2004

TIFFIN - A 1968 Heidelberg College graduate and her husband have donated $1 million to help build a science center and renovate two other classroom buildings at the Tiffin school.

The gift from Ralph and Joan Talmage of Grandview, Ohio, will be designated to name the third floor of the new Gillmor Science Hall for David Baker, who founded Heidelberg's Water Quality Laboratory. The lab and its National Center for Water Quality Research will be on the third floor of the science center, a 42,000-square-foot building that is to open in January.

Mr. Baker, a biology professor who retired in 1999, is married to Mrs. Talmage's sister, Peg.

The Talmages' donation brings the total raised for the building projects to $14 million, out of a goal of $17 million. The new science hall is named for U.S. Rep. Paul Gillmor (R., Old Fort), who secured nearly $5 million in federal funding toward construction.