Alumnus David Gilmore Supports Architecture Department's Poly Gives Efforts for Second Straight Year
Alum Dave Gilmore (Architecture, ‘76) is once again generously contributing a $20,000 matching gift during this year’s Poly Gives to the Architecture Department Fund for Excellence, a place where he learned, grew as a person, and came to feel at home. Gilmore provided a $20,000 gift last Poly Gives as well, and he hopes his gift will again inspire other alumni to step up and get more involved with their alma mater.
"This is about giving back to people like me who started at Cal Poly and maybe didn’t know their way,” he said. “I want to help take away some of the resistance to things that they can't afford.”
Last year, Gilmore’s matching gift challenge helped propel the CAED to raise $144,471 from 165 gifts, the largest amount raised by any Cal Poly college. He hopes that this year’s total will exceed even that and knows it take a group effort on behalf of many other parents, alumni, and other supporters to cross that threshold.
“Every dollar counts. It doesn't matter how big or how small, it counts,” he said.
Gilmore’s first job after graduation focused on building schools, but after a few years, he wanted to explore other areas of the discipline, including commercial work. His interest soon landed him at LPA, a 500-person commercial firm that offers a full range of services, where he now works as a Principal and Studio Director. He has been there for 44 years. More than 45 Cal Poly alumni work alongside him at LPA now.
Gilmore, who also volunteers as a member of the CAED’s Dean’s Leadership Council and is helping to launch the Architecture Department Advisory Board, hopes that his matching gift will inspire them, along with other Cal Poly architecture grads, to get more involved with their alma mater.
“I hope I can inspire people to step one: become more engaged with the school and remember all that Cal Poly gave you,” he said. “And then step two: find a way over time to start small then migrate up, and as you get more successful within the profession, to give more. It's not about yourself. It's about giving to the future.”
Help the College of Architecture and Environmental Design meet his match of $20,000 during Poly Gives!