The Hundere Endowment for Religion and Culture was created by a generous gift from Al Hundere of San Antonio, Texas. Hundere, a 1930s engineering graduate from Oregon State, was an inventor and manufacturer of his own inventions, most of them for aircraft, reflecting his own love of flying. In the early 1990s, he was attracted to the scholarship of department member Marcus Borg on the historical Jesus. Committed to the importance of critical thinking in the area of religion, Hundere in 1993 established the endowment with a gift of $1,500,000. Combined with matching funds from the state of Oregon, the endowment for the study of religion and culture is now worth substantially more.
The Hundere Endowment has supported the following:
- The Hundere Chair in Religion and Culture. Marcus Borg is the first occupant of the chair, and will continue to hold it until his retirement in 2007.
- Jesus at 2000, a nationally-televised scholarly symposium held at Oregon State in 1996, featuring lectures by John Dominic Crossan, Alan Segal, Karen Jo Torjeson, Harvey Cox, Huston Smith, and Marcus Borg. The lectures were published as Jesus at 2000, edited by Marcus Borg.
- God at 2000, another nationally-televised scholarly symposium held at Oregon State in 2000, co-sponsored by Trinity Episcopal Church in Manhattan and the Chautauqua Institution. Speakers included Diana Eck, Lawrence Kushner, Joan Chittister, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Karen Armstrong, Desmond Tutu, and Marcus Borg. The lectures were published as God at 2000, edited by Marcus Borg and Ross Mackenzie.
- Primary financial support for the department's Program for Ethics, Science, and the Environment.
- Support for faculty book-writing awards, faculty travel, guest lectures, adjunct professors, and graduate teaching fellowships.
