< Back to front page Text size – +

Brandeis settles suit over name of new science building

E-mail|Link|Comments () August 20, 2009 12:34 PM

By Tracy Jan, Globe Staff

Brandeis officials can breathe easier now after reaching a settlement with the heirs of the late university benefactor Julius Kalman.

Sumner Kalman, great-nephew of Julius Kalman, had sued Brandeis last spring over the university’s intention to raze the 53-year-old science building named for Kalman and name its new science center after a more recent donor, Carl Shapiro.

But Kalman’s lawsuit was dismissed Wednesday following an agreement that Brandeis will name a research laboratory in the new center after Julius Kalman and install an existing tribute plaque to him on the ground floor of the new science center.

In addition to the plaque, another sign will acknowledge the former science center and read, in part: “Two generations of Brandeis scientists were trained inside its walls for the betterment of humankind ... Brandeis University is deeply grateful to Julius Kalman who had faith in this university in its earliest years.”

Kalman, who died in 1956, left $1.8 million -- which would now be worth about $14 million -- to the university for a building, or a portion of a building, to be known as the “Julius Kalman Memorial,” according to court documents.

After learning of the university's plan to demolish the science building, Sumner Kalman accused Brandeis of destroying his great-uncle’s legacy and memory. Brandeis has assured the Kalman family that if the new science complex needs to be replaced at some point in the future, Julius Kalman will continue to be honored with a plaque.

“The university has made it a priority to update and replace older facilities in an effort to provide students and faculty with an exceptional educational experience and learning environment,” said Judy Sizer, Brandeis’s general counsel.

“Julius Kalman’s magnificent generosity to the university will be appropriately honored,” she said.

Sumner Kalman, an attorney in Plaistow, N.H., said he’s satisfied with the end result.

“I’m appreciative of what they’ve done, although I would have appreciated it a lot more without the necessity of a lawsuit,” Kalman said. “I basically got the bum’s rush, so they got a lawsuit. And then they found religion, so that’s great.”

If only the recent lawsuit brought by several overseers of Brandeis’s Rose Art Museum could be resolved so amicably.