UNC Asheville Receives $3 Million Gift for Scholarships, University Programs;
Zeis' Gift Allows Students to Pursue Their Dreams

UNC Asheville received the largest private gift in its history Wednesday from an Asheville couple whose ties to the university began with a year of classes 44 years ago. The $3 million gift was announced by UNC Asheville Chancellor James H. Mullen Jr. at a public event Wednesday morning.

The donors, Steve and Frosene Zeis, have established two scholarship funds with a $1 million bequest and provided a $2 million life income gift for university programs.

“We are very honored to announce the Zeis’ gift. Steve and Frosene believe so strongly in the importance of a liberal arts education they are willing to invest in it for others. It is a measure of their steadfast faith and their great optimism about the future of this institution, one in which we will all put our best efforts and greatest talents,” said Chancellor Mullen. 

In recognition of their contributions, the UNC Asheville Board of Trustees has voted to name UNC Asheville’s new Science and Multimedia Building, which will be completed in 2007, in honor of the Zeises. 

“Steve and Frosene’s life together is a wonderful example of partnership and collaboration,” said Sue H. McClinton, UNC Asheville Board of Trustees chair. “It is this very partnership and collaboration that is one of the signal values of a liberal arts education. At the very heart of the liberal arts education is learning how to work collaboratively, establish partnerships, to seek common goals, to question, and to continue to learn throughout life.

For Steve Zeis, a native of Istanbul of Greek heritage who immigrated to the United States in 1957, his American education laid the foundation for a successful family firm that represented some of Europe’s most prominent textile and plastics machinery manufacturers in North America.

“We know from our own experience that education has made a difference. It handed me the key to achieving my life’s dream,” said Steve Zeis, whose international business career started in 1961 with course work at Asheville-Biltmore College, now UNC Asheville. “Frosene and I have always felt that education is the most valuable gift you can give another human being, and this giving opportunity to UNC Asheville enables us to fulfill our philosophy of life.”

“It’s good to pass on something of value while you can watch those who receive it enjoy the gift and flourish,” added Frosene Zeis, Steve’s wife of 44 years and an equal partner in the successful family firm they founded in 1983.  

Steve came to the United States as a young man knowing he wanted to combine his interest in science with his business acumen. “From the time I was 6 years old, I waited on customers in my father’s fabric shop in Istanbul. My formative years in my father’s shop propelled me into the world of textiles,” he said.      

Planning to study textiles at North Carolina State College (now N.C. State University), he enrolled at Asheville-Biltmore College, predecessor to UNC Asheville. After a year of classes, he transferred to N.C. State and earned a bachelor’s degree from the College of Textiles.

Steve’s career in textile research, development and worldwide textile processing provided the international business experience and contacts that allowed the Zeises to start their own firm representing some of Europe’s most prominent textile machinery manufacturers in the United States and Canada. The Zeises established ZTM Sales and Service Inc. in Asheville in 1983. Steve, who speaks six languages, represented a diverse mix of European textile machine companies, traveling abroad frequently, while Frosene, an Asheville native and honors graduate with a degree in business from the former St. Genevieve of the Pines School in Asheville, managed the business side of ZTM.

The Zeises kept their eye on UNC Asheville, returning to participate in numerous career fairs where they sought new employees from among graduating students and offered advice to students who were creating their own dreams and plans for the working world.

 “We have watched UNC Asheville grow, widening its curriculum and receiving diverse accreditations and recognitions. We are proud of UNC Asheville and are happy to be contributing in some measure toward the fulfillment of the university’s educational objectives while assisting young students to pursue their life’s dream, as we ourselves were able to do,” Steve said.
 

 SIDEBARS

• Planned Giving Instruments

• Building Projects Funded Through the 2000 Higher Education Bond Referendum

• Other Named Buildings on Campus

Media Contacts:

• Merianne Epstein, UNC Asheville Public Information Director, 828/251-6676
• Jill Yarnall, UNC Asheville Public Information Assistant Director, 828/251-6526