Keystone College will pay tribute to members of a family who have been loyal supporters of the college for decades by renaming the School of Arts and Sciences in their honor.
During a recent meeting, Keystone’s Board of Trustees voted unanimously to rename the School of Arts and Sciences the Turock School of Arts and Sciences, in honor of Keystone alumni Betty J. Turock, Ph.D., her son, David L. Turock, Ph.D., and the late Frank Turock, who was Dr. Betty Turock’s husband, and Dr. David Turock’s father.
The Turocks have been longtime members of the college’s Board of Trustees and have been involved with Keystone in a variety of capacities for many years. The Turock Family received Keystone’s Presidential Medallion in 2000. The association of the Turock name with Keystone has an extended history, which began when relative Andrew Turock entered the school in its earliest years when it was known as Keystone Academy.
The Turock School of Arts and Sciences includes the departments of:
- Communication and Liberal Studies;
- Biological and Physical Sciences;
- Mathematics;
- Psychology;
- Social Sciences and Criminal Justice;
- Visual Arts.
“It is truly exciting to announce that our School of Arts and Sciences is going to be renamed in honor of the Turock family,” said Keystone College President David L. Coppola, Ph.D.
“Betty and David have shown tremendous dedication to Keystone for so many years and the late Frank Turock was a proud Keystone graduate. By naming the School of Arts and Sciences in their honor, we are also demonstrating our tremendous appreciation for everything the Turock family has done to make Keystone what it is today.” ~ Keystone College President David L. Coppola, Ph.D.
“Our family is truly grateful to have the School of Arts and Sciences renamed as the Turock School of Arts and Sciences,” said Dr. Betty Turock and Dr. David Turock. “To us, Keystone is more than the college we attended and graduated from. In many ways, it is the educational home that gave us both our start toward the rewarding lives we have lived. We are proud to have the Turock name as part of the Keystone legacy.”
Frank Turock, a native of nearby Dickson City, Pa., graduated from Keystone in 1952 and then earned his bachelor’s degree from Syracuse University. He was a successful corporate executive with Western Electric, the manufacturing arm of AT&T. With the break-up of AT&T in 1984, he was one of the first executives who established NYNEX, which became part of Verizon. After retiring, he assisted his sons, David and Drew, in creating their first start-up telecommunications company. He was involved with a variety of philanthropic endeavors and was a strong activist for diversity within organizations.
“To us, Keystone is more than the college we attended and graduated from. In many ways, it is the educational home that gave us both our start toward the rewarding lives we have lived. We are proud to have the Turock name as part of the Keystone legacy.” ~ Dr. Betty Turock and Dr. David Turock.
About Dr. Betty Turock
Dr. Betty Turock, Highland Park, N.J. is a Charles Weston Scholar who graduated from Keystone in 1953. She is also professor and dean emerita at Rutgers University, where for 22 years she was a member of the faculty of the School of Communication and Information. For eight years, she was the director of the master’s program and chair of the Department of Library and Information Science. During her tenure, the program was ranked among the top 10 in North America by U.S. News and World Report, a rank it continues to maintain.
She is also past president of the 68,000-member American Library Association (ALA), the oldest and largest library association in the world. Prior to her election as president, she served in several elected leadership positions within the organization. She is the author of more than 100 publications and reports, and was the founding editor of the award-winning Bottom Line: A Financial Magazine for Libraries.
Dr. Turock has received numerous accolades and professional awards. In 2011, she was named distinguished Alumni by Rutgers University’s Graduate School. In 2012, the ALA conferred on Dr. Turock the highest honor it bestows, Honorary Lifetime Member for contributions “so outstanding that they are of lasting importance to the advancement of the whole field of library and information science.”
Dr. Turock earned a bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, from Syracuse University. Her master’s and doctoral degrees are from Rutgers. She has traveled, lectured, and served as a consultant nationally, as well as internationally in Russia, India, China, Taiwan, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. She has served in leadership roles on numerous boards and organizations.
About David L. Turock, Ph.D.
David L. Turock, Ph.D. is an accomplished entrepreneur and dedicated philanthropist. A 1977 Keystone graduate, Dr. Turock began his career at AT&T Bell Laboratories. After leaving Bell, he founded three entrepreneurial telecommunications companies. He sold his interests in those companies, using the proceeds to benefit several philanthropic organizations, including the Lighting Rod Foundation, which he founded to educate the public about the importance of reducing dependence on foreign oil through the use of electric vehicles.
A Florida resident, he is chairman of Northern Lights Aviation, a company he founded to provide charitable transportation services in the northeastern United States. Northern Lights uses helicopters and small fixed-wing aircraft to move ambulatory people with serious illnesses from rural areas to major medical centers.
A longtime member of the Keystone College Board of Trustees, Dr. Turock is the founder and chairman of the Turock Family Foundation which supports initiatives in health, science research, and education. The organization’s most recent project was a collaboration that created the National Museum of Mathematics in New York City.
After graduating from Keystone, Dr. Turock continued his education, receiving degrees from Syracuse University, Rutgers University, and the University of Pennsylvania. He holds post-graduate certificates from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is currently finishing another program of study in Nanotechnology at Harvard University. He has written numerous articles and publications on human cognition and holds several patents, most notably the fundamental patent on Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) that carries six of the nine billion calls placed in the world each day.
