Bart Blaner '83

Matching Gift Accelerates Scholarship Endowment
May 2012

Born and raised in the Adirondack Park, Bart Blaner was no stranger to rural environments.  He spent the first portion of his life watching his parents, Andrew and Edna, work long hard hours to make ends meet in order to provide for Bart and his brother. Andrew was a Slovak immigrant and Edna a hardscrabble Yankee.  Neither Andrew nor Edna attended college and they both held low-wage jobs until they were able to retire on what little savings they had set aside from a lifetime of hard physical labor and frugality.  The Blaners encouraged Bart to find a trade.  Bart was an excellent student so his teachers at Warrensburg Central School advised him to explore secondary education.  Clarkson College of Technology peaked his interest, as he was looking to pursue a degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering.  The location, just outside the Adirondack Park, looked like it would be a good fit.  Clarkson provided a friendly small town atmosphere with a top notch reputation.  With financial need and strong grades, Bart’s college expenses were covered in large part by generous scholarships from Clarkson, the State of New York, the federal government, and other agencies. 

After graduating from Clarkson in 1983, Bart accepted a position with Harris Corp. and then IBM where he has worked  for 28 years, specializing in microprocessor architecture and design. He also holds over 30 patents in computer hardware design.  Bart has always remembered his humbling beginnings and is grateful for his success.  Thus, he decided to extend the gracious generosity shown to him during his college years by endowing a scholarship for students from the Adirondacks who are pursuing an education in engineering or science at Clarkson.

Bart contacted the Annie Clarkson Society to learn how to best structure his gift to meet his philanthropic goals.  He learned that his contributions to the endowed scholarship could be matched by IBM by simply filling out a form.  By taking advantage of his employer’s matching gift program, Bart will fully fund his scholarship in nearly half the time he had originally planned.  Thus Bart’s scholarship will generate an award to a qualified student in the fall of 2013. 

Recently, Bart decided to further support his endowed scholarship by selecting Clarkson as a beneficiary of his IRA.  When realized, a portion of the remainder of his IRA will be added to the corpus of his endowed scholarship, which will increase the amount of aid awarded.    

It is because of the generosity of alumni like Bart, that Clarkson is able to attract and provide for bright students looking to become the next Golden Knights.  Thank you to Bart for ensuring the Clarkson experience for future generations!