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Steve Beeber
UMass Amherst magazine
Fall 2003
UMass Amherst alumnus Earl W. Stafford says corporate America is increasingly in need of varied kinds of talent. That’s part of the reason he has committed to giving the cam- pus $1 million to establish the Earl W. Stafford Professorship in Entrepreneurial Studies.
“Having an M.B.A. is not the only measure of potential success in the business world,” says Stafford. “Talented people come from a variety of backgrounds and can offer a variety of perspectives to corporate development. Hopefully, this program will stimulate more interest in entrepreneurial studies, both from business students and those in other disciplines.”
Stafford decided to establish the professorship because he felt he “wanted to give something back to UMass Amherst,” and that Chancellor John V. Lombardi’s leadership inspired him to “give without even asking.”
A 1976 graduate of the Isenberg School of Management, Stafford is founder, chairman and CEO of Universal Systems & Technology, Inc. UNITECH provides telecommunications systems integration, business support systems, simulation and training services and engineering for federal, state, local and commercial customers nationwide.
While Stafford was not yet focused on telecommunications, he still remembers his days on campus as being some of the most stimulating and productive of his early career. Indeed, Stafford says that the university helped him to pursue his studies during a pivotal – and not always easy – period of his life.“I was married with a child when I was at UMass,” Stafford says. “We were living in Chicopee Falls, and every day I commuted back and forth.” He remembers loving the pies at Atkins Farm and ordering one on the way into campus, then picking it up at the end of the day on his way home. “Luckily,” he says, “the campus had wonderful childcare and everyone was very supportive. We had both the students who worked in childcare and the professors who taught my classes over for spaghetti. It was a very tight-knit community.”
The recipient of an Air Force scholarship, Stafford says that he actually had been offered the opportunity to study at nearly a dozen other colleges, but that he chose the university because “I thought it was the best – and I was right.”
If Stafford’s success today, nearly a quarter-century later, is any indicator, he was indeed right in choosing UMass Amherst – just as he is right to be proud of his alma mater.
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