Dr. Ascoli's lecture, a Black History Month event at ASU, will focus on "The Rosenwald School Building Program in the Rural South: 1913-31." He will give a history of the program from its inception to its termination, and he also will provide insights about his grandfather, Julius Rosenwald.

The general public, as well as students, faculty and staff, are invited to attend.

Dr. Ascoli received bachelor’s degrees from the University of Chicago and St. Catherine's College, Oxford, and a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley, all in European history.

From 1971 to 1978, he was an assistant professor at Utah State University in Logan, Utah. He then moved to Chicago and worked as a fund raiser for a variety of cultural and educational non-profit organizations, including the University of Chicago, Chicago Opera Theater, Steppenwolf Theater Company, and the University of Illinois at Chicago.

He also teaches fund raising for the master's degree program in the management of non-profit social service agencies at the Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies in Chicago.

Since 1993, Ascoli has been working on a biography of his grandfather Rosenwald. In his business career, Rosenwald is most famous for building Sears Roebuck into America's leading mail order house in a time without telephones, computers and other modern technology. However, his most lasting legacy is little known in today's society.

Although he rose to become one of the wealthiest men in America, he was also a beloved humanitarian who gave away $63 million, using his great wealth and leadership talent to try and fix what he viewed as wrong in the world. Rosenwald established social services to meet the needs of 100,000 impoverished Jewish immigrants.

He also spurred the establishment of 25 YMCA-YWCAs to serve African-Americans in cities across the U.S., including the Wabash Avenue YMCA in Chicago. He established one of the nation's first low-income housing projects and effectively supported the creation of more than 5,000 schools for African American children in Southern states at a time when very few received any public education.

His commitment to social justice greatly aided the improvement of educational opportunities for African Americans across the South.

Off campus visitors should phone or email the Heritage Studies office to arrange on-campus parking for the afternoon of Dr. Ascoli's talk. Please contact Terry Johnson at (870) 910-8217 or by e-mail at tlthomas@astate.edu. The Heritage Studies web site has more details: http://www.clt.astate.edu/heritagestudies/.