Edward A. St. John '61 brings to philanthropy the same commitment that helped him build one of the region's largest and most successful commercial real estate firms. He has impacted the state, economically through his successful company, as a leader through his public service and philanthropically through his generosity.

 

In 1971, he started St. John Properties which now owns and manages more than 15 million square feet of real estate (residential, retail, research and development, warehouse, and office buildings) in Maryland, Northern Virginia, Wisconsin, Colorado and Louisiana. Valued at more than $2 billion, the company services more than 1,600 tenants.

 

It is what he does with this success that makes St. John exceptional, noted Corridor Inc. magazine upon naming him its 2009 Person of the Year. The company donates 7.5 percent of its net income to charitable causes.

 

Through his foundation, the Baltimore, Md., native has given and pledged more than $43 million to support local nonprofit organizations and educational institutions. His personal commitment of $10 million to the university last year will support construction of the Edward St. John Learning and Teaching Center. When it is built, approximately 10,000 students per day will use the high-tech learning facility, designed to help them compete in a technologically advanced marketplace.

 

"As a proud alum, I am keenly aware of how my education has continued to pay dividends throughout my career, and provided me with a solid foundation for success," he says. Two of St. John's three children and his sister also attended the University of Maryland.

 

Nancy Grasmick, former state superintendent of schools, says of St. John, "He wholeheartedly believes in the transformational potential of education."

 

St. John chairs the board of trustees at the Maryland Science Center. He serves on a number of other boards, including the University of Maryland Baltimore County, Alex Brown Center for Entrepreneurship, Johns Hopkins University Real Estate Institute and the National Association of Industrial and Office Parks (Maryland chapter).

 

 

Suzanne G. Valenstein currently is Research Scholar at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. She is retired from the Metropolitan's Department of Asian Art, where she curated the Chinese ceramics for thirty-five years. She also was guest curator for an exhibition at China Institute in America, for which she wrote the catalogue, Ming Porcelains: A Retrospective(1970). Her publications for the Metropolitan include A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics (1975); "Highlights of Chinese Ceramics," The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin (1975); A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, revised and enlarged edition (1989); Cultural Convergence in the Northern Qi Period: A Flamboyant Chinese Ceramic Container (2007); and (as co-author), The Robert Lehman Collection, Volume XV: European and Asian Decorative Arts (forthcoming). She was co-author of Oriental Ceramics: The World's Great Collections, Volume 12: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, published by Kodansha, International (1977); and was author/editor of The Herzman Collection of Chinese Ceramics (1992). Her new research monograph, Cosmopolitanism in the Tang Dynasty: A Chinese Ceramic Figure of a Sogdian Wine-Merchant, will be published by Cambria Press (forthcoming). In addition, she has written numerous articles and book reviews for Artibus Asiae, Oriental Art, and Orientations magazines.

 

In Fall 1976, Ms. Valenstein was Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University, where she conducted a seminar in Chinese ceramics. She has lectured widely in this country and abroad on the subject of Chinese ceramic history.

 

  UMD Commencement

 

  UMD Commencement