ORONO – The University of Maine’s new ocean engineering laboratory was formally dedicated Monday and will bear the name of the late philanthropist Harold Alfond.
The Harold Alfond W2 Ocean Engineering and Advanced Manufacturing Laboratories isn’t the only building on campus named for Alfond, founder of Dexter Shoe Co. It already has a football stadium and arena named for him.
The $13.8 million ocean simulator will be used to determine whether offshore wind power components can withstand the sea’s fury.
Funding included nearly $4 million from the Harold Alfond Foundation, $3 million from the U.S. Economic Development Administration, $983,977 from the National Science Foundation and $497,965 from the National Institute for Standards and Technology, along with state and private investments, officials said.
“We are investing in people and infrastructure that will support ocean engineering, and advanced manufacturing education and research, and grow Maine jobs,” said Gregory Powell, chairman of the Harold Alfond Foundation.
Alfond, who sold his business to Berkshire Hathaway before he died in 2007, never attended college but has given tens of millions of dollars to institutions of higher learning over the years.
U.S. Sen. Susan Collins said the support from the Harold Alfond Foundation has helped to create a center that will “help secure Maine’s place as a national leader in the ocean economy of the future, help advance our industrial competitiveness in boatbuilding and renewable energy such as offshore wind, and help ensure the resiliency of our coastal communities.”
Joining Collins and Powell at the event were Sen. Angus King; Rep. Bruce Poliquin; University of Maine President Susan Hunter; and Habib Dagher, director of the Advanced Structures and Composites Center.
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