A new $1.6 million scholarship fund has been set up in my Dad's name, as reported in today's Cleveland Plain Dealer:

Arthur Naparstek looked at urban poverty and instead of seeing a mess, he saw a way to develop the community's assets -- not the money, but the people themselves.

The model worked in Israel, the United States and in Cleveland.

And with nearly $1.6 million in scholarship money raised in his name at Case Western Reserve University's Mandel Center for Nonprofit Organizations, his optimistic legacy will continue.

Naparstek died in April 2004, but not before he knew that the scholarship fund was in the works.

He spent his life working to improve the hu man condition, said one of his good friends, Steven Hoffman, president of the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland.

"His life was about empowering people," Hoffman said. "And these particular scholarships are aimed at training professional leaders in the nonprofit world who are responsible for how civil society gets built."

Hoffman helped to raise $600,000 to perpetuate that legacy by supporting graduate work in nonprofit management for a student from Israel or a U.S. student working closely with Jewish organizations.

Donors included Jack, Joseph and Mort Mandel (after whom the Mandel Center for Nonprofit Organizations was named), the Robert Goldberg family, the Charles Ratner family, the David and Inez Myers Foundation and other Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland donors.

In addition, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development contributed nearly $1 million for Naparstek's fund to pay for scholarships for students pursuing the master of nonprofit organization degree at Case's Mandel Center for Nonprofit Organizations.

Naparstek helped to write federal legislation, including HOPE VI, with U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, a Maryland Democrat, to radically improve deteriorated public housing. Mikulski helped to secure the HUD money.

The first of the scholarships will be granted next year, said Susan Lajoie Eagan, executive director of the Mandel Center for Nonprofit Organizations. Naparstek, who was a professor at the school at the time of his death, was at one point in his career the dean of the university's school of applied social sciences.

"Art had a creative idea about every 30 seconds," said Eagan. "He really motivated, inspired and supported the people around him."

The week before his death, he attended a meeting of the Mandel Center's advisory board, Eagan said. "Even though he was obviously extraordinarily ill, he made the most important contribution that day."

One of the first projects Naparstek took on as dean of the former school of applied social sciences in 1983 was the project of creating the Center for Nonprofit Organizations. He worked with the Mandel brothers to get financial support for the center.

He was among the few in the country at that time who saw the importance of developing strong leadership in nonprofit management, Eagan said.

"Art had energy, enthusiasm, excitement and a sophisticated optimism," said his wife, Belleruth Naparstek. "His optimism was based on knowledge."

The idea of tapping the talents of people to build a financially successful community was applied by the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland in the Israeli town of Beit Shean by linking it to a Jordanian city through business.

"When people saw him coming, they would roll their eyes because they knew they weren't off the hook," said Naparstek's wife. "He had a perseverance that was almost psychotic."

People mattered to Naparstek. He took the time to mentor them and teach them what he knew, she said. "If I am as successful as he was, I will have laid my hands on somebody else and they will carry it on," Hoffman said. "The young people who are successful in receiving these scholarships should only know how honored they should be to be associated with that mission."

by Susan Ruiz Patton, Cleveland Plain Dealer reporter

12:45 PM | Link |