Wake Forest announces $3 million gifts for faculty

Greensboro News & Record

Staff

October 28, 2013

Three alumni have committed $3 million to support professors at Wake Forest University.

The university announced today that Bobby Burchfield, a 1976 graduate, has established the Burchfield Presidential Chair of Political Economy with a $2 million gift.

Mike and Debbie Rubin, who both earned graduate degrees from Wake Forest, gave $1 million to establish the Rubin Chair of Jewish and Israeli Studies.

A former member of Wake Forest’s debate team, Burchfield is a trial attorney in Washington, D.C. He served eight years on the university’s Board of Trustees. He previously endowed the Burchfield Presidential Scholarship Fund for undergraduate students.

The Rubins both got master of arts in liberal studies at Wake Forest. Debbie Rubin, formerly a counselor in the University Counseling Center, is in her seventh year as a trustee. Mike Rubin is a retired Winston-Salem doctor.

The Rubins previously established the Rubin Chair of American Ethnic Studies in 1995 and the Mike and Debbie Rubin Scholarship Fund in 2005.

The announcement came about a week after the public launch of Wake Forest’s new capital campaign.