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WILKES-BARRE — Clayton and Theresa Karambelas had just been handed what Wilkes University President Patrick Leahy deemed the school’s “highest honor,” but the couple kept it humble during brief acceptance comments.
Theresa, in particular, focused her last comments after receiving the President’s Medal to the students who will benefit from scholarships funded through the more than $300,000 raised by the event.
“Clayton and I are simply a means to an end this evening,” she said, referring to the scholarships that target “first-generation” students. “We hope our investment in your dreams lights a fire in you to pay it forward.”
Clayton recounted the time when Wilkes was a three-building campus, and praised leadership past and present for the expansion that now includes what will be called the Clayton and Theresa Karambelas Media Center in the South Main Street building that formerly housed Bartikowsky Jewelers.
The new 17,726-square-foot center will bring the communication studies departments’ co-curricular activities under one roof: WCLH Radio, television studios, The Beacon student newspaper, the student public relations agency Zebra Communications and the speech and debate team.
Wilkes bought building in March 2015 for $1.2 million. Leahy announced last September that the Sordoni Art Gallery would be moved to the back part of the building and most of the art collection sold.
The deaccession sparked criticism from some quarters, but Leahy said it was due to a misunderstanding of the goal: To change the gallery focus from collecting to exhibiting. Money from the sales would go into an endowment — potentially nearing $3 million — to draw prominent art shows.
The Karambelas moniker is meant, in part, to honor the couple for giving the university repeated support for various projects, most recently for the building itself. That contribution, Leahy said, made the couple “The most generous friends in the history of Wilkes University.
Clayton earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Wilkes in 1949. He and his wife previously owned the Boston Candy Shop & Restaurant and C.K. Coffee. They currently own C.K. Consulting and live in Kingston.
“Wilkes has few friends more loyal than Clayton and Theresa Karambelas,” Leahy said. “Their support over the years has provided additions to campus enjoyed by generations of students.”
Launched in 2014, the Founders Gala has raised nearly $1 million for the First Generation Scholarship Fund.