ADVANCING THE MISSION
Transformational Gifts to Stevenson
PHILIP A . ZAFFERE LIBRARY
Stevenson University has received a $ 2 million gift — one of the largest in the university ’ s history — from the Philip A . Zaffere Foundation for its new Owings Mills campus library . The new 55,000-square-foot library will be named in honor of the late Philip A . Zaffere , an entrepreneur , inventor , and food production engineer from Maryland ’ s Eastern Shore . The facility will complement the Manning Academic Center and School of Design at Stevenson ’ s Owings Mill North campus location .
“ We are very grateful for this extraordinary gift and the difference it will make in the lives of our students ,” said Stevenson Presdemt Elliot Hirshman . “ Philip Zaffere ’ s life demonstrates so many of the characteristics that Stevenson works to develop in our students — determination , vision , and innovation . We are honored that our new library will bear his name .”
Philip A . Zaffere was born in Federalsburg , Md ., in 1930 , and took over operations of his family ’ s bakery business during his college years . An outside-of-the-box thinker , Zaffere engineered food production methods and technologies that eventually took his family ’ s small company to a national level . He developed successful formulas for the mass production of baking crumbs and transformed his family ’ s company into Shoreman Food Technologies . Under Zaffere ’ s leadership , Shoreman — which was ultimately sold to the PET Food Corporation in 1988 — became the main supplier for nationwide brands such as Stove Top Stuffing and Mrs . Paul ’ s frozen foods . While the needs of his family ’ s business interrupted his own college studies , Zaffere maintained a deep and lifelong curiosity for the sciences and engineering as
28 | VENTURES / WINTER 2020-2021