Getting Down to Business

Phyllis and David Klock Offer Support from the Start

Soon after taking leadership of the School of Business as dean, David R. Klock, Ph.D., and his wife, Phyllis, pledged a generous gift to the school to establish the Phyllis and David Klock Fund for Excellence. This gift will provide the school with a source of funds to be used for recruiting and retaining outstanding faculty, encouraging scholarship and research by faculty members, rewarding faculty for other contributions that enhance the reputation of the school, and other appropriate professionally related uses.

“Education was our door to opportunity,” Dr. Klock says. “Phyllis and I both came from very modest economic backgrounds, and we believe that obtaining a college education opened doors for exceptional personal and economic growth. When we incurred economic success beyond our dreams through CompBenefits Inc., we decided that material support for higher education would be our philanthropic focus. We see the UAB School of Business as a place where diverse students of modest economic means come to open their doors to opportunity.”

Klock adds that the most critical resource needed for students’ success is a faculty of teacher-scholars who are dedicated to challenging and mentoring UAB’s many great students of opportunity. “There is a severe shortage of qualified business faculty, resulting in escalating costs and difficulty in recruiting and retaining the best faculty members,” he says. “Our contribution will support the retention of high-performing teacher-scholars.”

“We thank the Klocks for investing in students and the School of Business,” says Shirley Salloway Kahn, Ph.D., vice president for development, alumni, and external relations. “Their gift is an excellent example of how much our own faculty members believe in the success of UAB.”

Klock adds, “Phyllis and I both have served on the faculty and/or been administrators at great universities. Those associations have blessed us. We recognize that it is time to give back in a concrete way of saying thank you and of supporting the next generation of faculty and students.”