H eadlines
Penn Names Design School After Stuart Weitzman
L O CAL
JESSE BERNSTEIN | JE STAFF
SPEAKING FROM THE
back of a limousine, Stuart
Weitzman, for whom the
University of Pennsylvania’s
School of Design is being
renamed to recognize his
contributions, said that when
President Amy Gutmann
called to tell him the news, he
was ecstatic.

“It’s not the kind of honor
you turn down,” Weitzman
said. “If I could still do som-
ersaults, I would do one right
now,” he told Gutmann.

In addition to renaming the
school, the campus’ central plaza
will be redesigned and renamed
The Stuart Weitzman Plaza.

“What makes
Stuart Weitzman so inspiring is his
rock-solid belief that investing
in people and education is the
way to make a lasting impact,”
Dean of the School of Design
Frederick Steiner said in a press
release. “From this day forward,
the interrelated fields that com-
prise design at Penn will be
linked with the name and design
legacy of Stuart Weitzman. Our
school is enormously proud to
bear his name.”
Initially, he was asked by
longtime professor Barbara
Kahn to give a lecture, and
it was a success, as hundreds
packed the hall.

“They loved the experiences
I had in my career,” he said.

Now, for the past few years,
Weitzman has led mentor-
ship classes for Wharton stu-
dents, taking on a handful per
semester. He requires each of
them to send him their CV
and questions that allow him
to properly assess his class
and what they need to learn.

That, too, has been a success,
as the registration waitlist for
his class grows each semester.

Weitzman thinks it has some-
thing to do with his atypical
teaching style; he’s “a little bit
more fun and different than
bankers coming in or lawyers
coming in their three-piece
suits,” he joked.

Another factor that may
contribute to his class’ popu-
larity: his ability to tell a story.

One of his favorites is about
his own student experience,
when he was required to take a
sociology class.

“Why the heck are they
making us take in sociology?”
he remembered wondering as
he sat down in class on the
If he doesn’t happen to be
on campus, Weitzman, 78,
can still find his name adorn-
ing high-end shoe stores all
over the world, though he sold
his controlling interest in the
company a few years back.

Shoes designed by Weitzman
have been seen and sold every-
where from red carpets to Fifth
Avenue to Walnut Street.

A 1963 graduate of Penn’s
Wharton School, Weitzman keeps
himself busy with a wide vari-
ety of projects. He’s involved in
the development of a museum of
Spanish-Jewish history in Madrid,
is producing two Broadway shows
for 2019 and serves on the board of
the U.S. Olympics and Paralympic
Foundation. Weitzman once rep-
resented the U.S. in table tennis at
the Maccabiah Games.

For Weitzman, the renaming
is the culmination of decades of
support for his alma mater.

“I’ve been in love with Penn
since I was there,” he said, add-
ing that he attends reunions
when he can. Weitzman, who
now lives in Connecticut, is
also one of the founders of the
Penn Club in New York.

What has kept him involved
more than anything, he said,
has been his work as a lecturer
at the university.

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JEWISH EXPONENT
Stuart Weitzman
first day.

The class was being taught
by E. Digby Baltzell, the leg-
endary sociologist best known
for coining the term “WASP.”
In the first class, Baltzell called
a student to the front of the
class and presented him with
a basket of tennis balls and a
large jug. “Fill the jug as tightly
as you can,” Baltzell told the
student, who shoved the balls
in as compactly as he could.

Then Baltzell called up
another student and produced
a jug filled with sand from
below the lectern. He told the
second student to fill in the
rest of the jug with the sand.

Sure enough, cracks and crev-
ices unfilled by the tennis balls
were taken care of. He then
pulled out a pitcher of water.

The class laughed — they got it.

“You’re wondering why you’re
here,” Baltzell told the class.

“Think of your life like this
jug,” Weitzman recalled him
saying. “And these tennis balls,
that’s gonna be the work you’re
gonna be doing, and they are
gonna fill up most of your
time. But just like that kid over
there couldn’t do, you’re not
gonna be able to fill up your
life with just your tennis balls
Photo courtesy University of Pennsylvania
Stuart Weitzman School of Design
of work. And the sand, that’s
gonna help. That’s your com-
mitment to your community,
that’s your hobbies, that’s your
adventures, hey, that’s your
sports if that what tickles you.

“But without the elixir of
life, water, this jug wouldn’t
have been filled and neither
will your life be. The water,
that’s your family, that’s your
friends. And without all of this,
you will never have a full life.

So that’s why my course is a
requirement for all of you, so
that you know there’s more to
life than just what you learn in
the Wharton school.”
“I never forgot that,”
Weitzman said.

Weitzman and his wife, Jane,
president of the Jewish Book
Council, will be in town at
Congregation Rodeph Shalom
on March 26 as part of the syn-
agogue’s 90th anniversary cele-
bration. They’ll be interviewed
by Ivy Barsky, CEO and direc-
tor of the National Museum of
American Jewish History, for
an event titled “If Our Shoes
Could Talk and Where They
Have Taken Us.” l
jbernstein@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0740
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



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