Nature & Nurture | Campaign News

Founder of West Marine Invests $2.3 million in Marine Conservation Technology and Green Building OSTC Groundbreaking Scheduled for April 24 in Beaufort

“If the sea is sick, we’ll feel it. If it dies, we die. Our future and the state of the oceans are one.” Sea Change: A Message of the Oceans, Sylvia A. Earle

Randy Repass and his wife, Sally-Christine Rodgers, understand Dr. Sylvia Earle’s message because their lives are entwined with the sea, both personally and professionally. The founder and chairman of West Marine, the world’s largest boating supply retailer, and his family are avid boaters who often cruise on their powerboat to Alaska and their sailboat in the Pacific.

   “Both of us were raised on the water,” says Repass. “In recent years, however, we have noticed a decline in our marine life sightings.” Heeding Earle’s warning, the couple has committed $1.3 million for a university professorship in Marine Conversation Technology and $1 million to Duke University’s first totally “green” building at the Duke Marine Laboratory in Beaufort, N.C. The Ocean Sciences Teaching Center will be named in their honor as a result of the gift.

  “This gift blends my intellectual interests in engineering with my love of the sea,” says Repass, a 1966 graduate of the Pratt School of Engineering. The Repass- Rodgers joint professorship, based at the Marine Laboratory in Beaufort, will guarantee that the collaboration between the schools will flourish. “Increasingly, we see that technology can play a major role in monitoring the environment and in the development of conservation policy in the United States and abroad,” says William H. Schlesinger, dean of the Nicholas School. Kristina Johnson, dean of the Pratt School, adds, “We are excited that this gift will deepen our cross-school collaborations in biologically inspired materials, sensors, water remediation, restoration and preservation.”

  According to Repass, he and his wife made the gift because they believe the Duke Marine Lab is in a position to expand on the significant contributions it has made to marine conservation. “We are impressed with the Lab’s ability to educate current and future leaders in the field of marine and fish conservation, to provide research on key conservation issues, to apply this information to bring about needed policy change, and to work collaboratively with others in the fields of marine conservation, commercial fishing and recreational fishing as well as policy makers to reach positive outcomes for the marine environment,” Repass says.

  A groundbreaking ceremony for the Ocean Sciences Teaching Center is scheduled for April 24 in Beaufort.

  The first academic building to be built at the Duke Marine Lab in 30 years will house a teaching laboratory; spaces for social interactions and interpretive displays; and a televideo-capable lecture hall/auditorium that will enhance opportunities for team teaching and other collaborations between students and faculty on the Durham and Beaufort campuses. The design of the building will incorporate green technologies such as solar and geothermal energy, tidal or wind power, and materials such as bamboo paneling and concrete made from fly ash.

  “April 24 will be a special day at the Lab,” says Michael K. Orbach, director of the Duke University Marine Lab. “Many members of the Marine Lab community have donated generously to the OSTC. I look forward to thanking each of them personally at the groundbreaking. Thanks to Randy and Sally-Christine, this long-anticipated project will add another gem to the crown at the Marine Lab.”