3:58 p.m., June 11, 2008--A dinner honoring Paul Wise, the founder of UD's Department of Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management (HRIM), was held April 26 at the Trabant University Center and yielded donations of more than $200,000 for an endowed scholarship in his name for HRIM students. The event also marked the opening of HRIM's 20th anniversary celebration.

The gala dinner opened with a special selection played by Xiang Gao, world renowned violinist and UD associate professor of music.

Wise and hundreds of well-wishers mixed, mingled and dined in style as UD President Patrick Harker; David Hollowell, former UD executive vice president and treasurer; UD Provost Dan Rich; Michele Rollins, chairperson of the HRIM advisory board and others detailed Wise's part in HRIM's unprecedented rise to prominence, including the creation of Vita Nova, UD's student-run restaurant, and the Courtyard Newark-University of Delaware hotel, both HRIM learning laboratories.

Wise came to UD in 1988 as founding director and HRIM chairperson. In less than 15 years, the program moved from temporary offices in a trailer to a top-ranked hospitality department. Speaker after speaker underscored how the program's unprecedented rise to prominence was to a large degree the result of Wise's vision and tireless pursuit.

Wise came to UD after a career associated with the military, where he was responsible for 670 clubs and hotels and was inducted into the International Military Club Executive Association Hall of Fame.

Active in hospitality field organizations, Wise was a fellow of the Educational Institute of the American Hotel and Motel Association and received its Lamp of Knowledge Award for Outstanding Educator in 1992. He also was named to the Hall of Fame for Outstanding Individual Achievement in the 2000 Governor's Tourism Awards and was honored with 2003 Cornerstone Award by the Delaware Restaurant Association.

When he retired from UD in 2000, the Paul Wise Executive-in-Residence Fund was established in his honor. The Wise Executive-in-Residence Fund sponsors an on-campus program--including lectures, workshops, consultation and advisement sessions with HRIM faculty and staff--by a recognized leader who personifies current best practice in hospitality management.

Wise graduated from Pennsylvania State University and was named its Hotel and Restaurant Society Alumnus of the Year. He received a master's degree in food marketing from Michigan State University.

Article by Barbara Garrison
Photo by Kathy F. Atkinson