A Gift For What 'Really Matters'

It's a Friday morning in February and Rolf Engh is sitting in a William Mitchell conference room talking with his wife Nancy and a Mitchell employee about how the college has changed since he enrolled in 1978.

Engh, the executive vice president of Valspar, a global leader in the coatings industry, shakes his head at the thought of studying in a classroom with the temperature pushing 95 degrees.

"I remember my first day; it was August and hot," he says. "There wasn't any air conditioning." As if being grilled by Professor Kyle Montague, one of the faculty members who made the greatest impression on Engh, wasn't enough. "He was a lion of man ... taught Contracts, and he was tough," Engh says of Montague. "He was really tough, but he was ultimately a kind man who taught me a great deal. He's gone now."

So is Paul Marino, another of Engh's most memorable professors, who taught Torts.

One day early on in Engh's law school career, Robert Heland, an adjunct professor and real estate lawyer, stopped teaching and told the class something that's not found in a casebook. He spoke about the importance of a law school's reputation. Reputation matters, he told the class, because it can open doors for graduates, and Mitchell's reputation rests on the shoulders of its alumni.

"He told us that future generations won't judge William Mitchell based on what we say, but on the basis of our contributions to society," Engh remembers. "He told us we could say whatever we want, we can build a fancy school, but what really counts is what our graduates as lawyers do in their lifetimes ... because it takes a lifetime to build a law school's reputation."

Engh took his professor's words to heart and has been working for nearly 30 years to give back to society and make Mitchell a better law school. He's been a mentor to students and a tireless advocate of the college. During his three terms on the board of trustees, Engh was involved in the campaign to build the Warren E. Burger Library. The successful $7.5 million dollar campaign moved the library from the dim and cramped basement of campus to an energy filled three-story facility that rivals any law library in the country.

He also worked to increase diversity on the board, which at the time was comprised primarily of white, middle-aged men who were lawyers. Today, the board includes men and women, lawyers and business professionals, and a mix of people from an array of personal and professional backgrounds. Engh considers the increased diversity on the board one of the accomplishments of which he's most proud.

"Whenever you get a diverse group together, you get different viewpoints," he says. "It creates a more dynamic and productive discussion. There is value in diversity."

The Mitchell employee then asks about the Rolf & Nancy Engh Distinguished Professorship Endowment, which the couple recently established with a $1 million gift to Mitchell via a combination of outright multi-year pledge and bequest. It will recognize the work of outstanding faculty members and help strengthen Mitchell's regional and national reputation. The distinguished professorship will be awarded to a Mitchell faculty member annually in recognition of her or his excellence in teaching, research, or service to the community.

"What you need to understand," Nancy says, "is that Rolf gets very emotional when he talks about William Mitchell and the opportunities it has afforded him. Too often law school is seen as something you get through-you go to class, take the bar, and don't look back. This gift really says that the practice of law is a lifelong learning experience ... and it's also a lifelong giving experience."

Engh clearly gets excited when he talks about Mitchell's focus on recruiting a diverse mix of students; its willingness to innovate in the classroom; its continued commitment to practical, hands-on learning opportunities for students; and its faculty "who are wise, whose roots run deep, and who care deeply about the college."

"Maybe things haven't changed that much around here after all," he says. "This is still a law school focused on what really matters."