The name Bowerman is known at the University of Oregon for the weight it carries in track and field circles. But Tom Bowerman hopes that people associate that name with philanthropy as much as they do Track Town, U.S.A.

The Bowerman family has recently donated $1 million dollars to the University of Oregon School of Law through the Oregon Community Foundation.

This gift will mostly go toward to the school’s Environmental and Natural Resources Law Center, a program focused on the environment and natural resources, as the title suggests.

The $1 million gift will effectively double the amount of fellows at the law program able to do research as well as supports a research assistant to work with the fellows.

Not only does the Bowermans’ donation double the amount of fellows in the program, but it also will help graduates find public interest environmental and natural resource careers after graduating, as well as help to fund stipends for students working in summer programs.

“For the ENR center it’s a very special and important gift. It’s thanks to the ongoing support from the Bowerman family and it’s a really significant and important gift that we appreciate,” said Heather Brinton, the managing director for the ENR center.

A 1969 graduate of the UO’s architecture program, Bowerman told UO News that he gave the gift hoping to tap into “talent, energy and enthusiasm for important policy research that provides a real value to our world..”

“The University of Oregon’s law school is an undisputed leader in the rapidly changing field of environmental law, and we are grateful for the Bowerman family’s recognition and generous support of this critically important area of scholarship,” UO President Michael Gottfredson told UO News.