Alumni couple Willis Blackwood and Mary Nolen Blackwood, of Richmond, Virginia, and Bonita Springs, Florida, recently donated $2 million to name and endow the director’s position within the rapidly growing Virginia Tech Program in Real Estate.
Their gift is the largest ever made to the program, which began with four students in August 2013 and has grown to more than 200 undergraduates.
“Virginia Tech is on the leading edge in this industry,” said Willis Blackwood ’72, who is the founder and president of Blackwood Development Company Inc., a privately owned real estate firm in Richmond, Virginia. “Students from this program are extremely valuable to future employers because they get a comprehensive foundation in the industry that other schools just don’t provide.”
The Blackwoods have supported the Program in Real Estate since its inception. Willis Blackwood, who earned his Virginia Tech bachelor’s degree in business administration and has an MBA from Virginia Commonwealth University, chairs the Virginia Tech Real Estate Industry Advisory Board. Mary Nolen Blackwood ’73 earned her Virginia Tech bachelor’s degree in psychology and has a master’s in health administration from what is now the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine. In 2014, the Blackwoods endowed the Willis and Mary Blackwood Junior Faculty Fellowship, now held by Erin Hopkins, an assistant professor of property management.
“Willis promotes the program in significant and important ways, and we are deeply grateful,” said Kevin Boyle, director of the Program in Real Estate, which had 41 graduates in spring 2017. “His vision and support helps us recruit top students and bring great industry people into the program. He’s an inspiration to our program’s students, faculty, and supporters.”
Willis Blackwood said he and his wife hoped their gift would inspire other leaders in the real estate industry to support the Program in Real Estate and its students as well.
“One thing Tech does very well is that it generates employable graduates,” said Blackwood, whose firm primarily focuses on the retail sector. “Its programs are geared toward graduates going out ready to excel in their jobs and make a difference. That goes back to the university’s land-grant mission.”
The Program in Real Estate is an academic unit in the Pamplin College of Business, in collaboration with the colleges of Agricultural and Life Sciences, Architecture and Urban Studies, Engineering, and Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. Students can earn a bachelor of science in real estate or a real-estate minor through Pamplin.
