Honoring Role Models

December 1st, 2003

Heading off to college is a challenging transition for any student, and for Leo Lum ’69, the change was even more dramatic. Lum arrived at Carleton from Beijing at a time when there were few international students on campus. There was no international student adviser as there is now, and no organized way for international students to seek help.

Fortunately, he found the support he needed in the offices and homes of his professors, including religion professors Bardwell Smith, Ian Barbour, and David Maitland, and history professor Bill Woehrlin. They provided advice, understanding, and sometimes a meal with their families.

“They changed my thinking about the world and people,” Lum says. “They were not just academicians – they and their families set an example for me at a formative age. They were good role models, and that’s a tradition I hope will carry on.”

Giving Back

It comes as no surprise, then that Lum chose to support faculty development and scholarships for international students at Carleton. In honor of Smith, he has established the Bardwell Smith Faculty Development Fund, which provides fellowships for faculty members to take advantage of opportunities to improve their teaching. He also has sent two groups of retired faculty members and their spouses on trips to Asia in 2003, to thank the faculty families who made a difference in his life and to facilitate meetings between these faculty members, alumni living in Asia, and prospective Asian students.

We were able to get groups of people together around a table to exchange ideas about Carleton, about liberal arts education, and about cross-cultural education,” Lum says.

Because he was a scholarship student, Lum is also providing a full four-year scholarship each year for one student from Singapore, who will be the Nason Undergraduate Scholar. In addition, Lum funds one Nason Post-Graduate Scholar each year – a student who has completed undergraduate education at either National University of Singapore or Nanyang Technological University, also in Singapore. Lum chose to name the scholarships after former president John W. Nason ’26, who instituted Carleton’s Asian studies program.

Northfield – A second home

After graduation, Lum worked in Minneapolis but kept living at Carleton in a basement apartment in the Faculty Club. He moved on to lead several banks, including Global Union Bank and Summa Financial Corporation in Hong Kong. He retired in 1998 as chair and sole shareholder of Pacific Rim Bancorp, now Greater Bay Bancorp. He is currently president and CEO of 1868 Associates Inc. in San Francisco.

Even now, Lum considers Northfield his second home. He spent plenty of time on campus when his daughter, Amy Lum ’98, was a student, and he returns regularly as a member of the Board of Trustees. “I get to be with people who have a common interest, common goals, and who are doing something great together,” he says.

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