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Ken Sigmon, 919/515-3878

Apr. 28, 2006

Asheville Family Makes $1.5 Million Gift to NC State College of Textiles

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Steve and Frosene Zeis of Asheville, N.C. (far right) have pledged $1.5 million to Dean Blanton Godfrey and the NC State College of Textiles. Photo by Roger Winstead

A personal gift from a North Carolina State University College of Textiles alumnus and his wife will benefit future textiles students
through scholarships and provide industry professionals an extension, education and economic development center that will bear the couple’s name.

Steve and Frosene Zeis of Asheville, N.C., have established two Centennial Scholarships with a $500,000 bequest and provided an additional $1 million life income gift for another important educational aspect of the College of Textiles – The Frosene and Steve Zeis ’62 Textile Extension Education for Economic Development Center.

The Centennial Scholars program is one of the largest college-based scholarship programs at NC State and attracts many of the top students to the college each year. In addition to covering the majority of college-related expenses, the program also offers enrichment funding for students to participate in approved textile-related activities outside the classroom. Recent finalists to this highly-competitive merit-based program averaged over 1,300 on the SAT, had weighted grade-point-averages of at lease 4.6, and were in the top 10 percent of their graduating class.

The center will be located in the College of Textiles on Centennial Campus and will conduct a wide variety of training courses for industry professionals ranging from Basic Textiles to Six Sigma, a statistical measure of variability designed to reduce defects and develop products
as close to perfect as possible. These classes will be taught by extension specialists, faculty and industry representatives, and are designed to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the
participating organizations and stimulate further economic development on a local and global
scale.

“We are incredibly grateful to Steve and Frosene for this generous gift,” College of Textiles Dean Blanton Godfrey said. “This gift enables us to continue to attract outstanding students to the college, where they will be trained to lead companies in North Carolina and beyond into successful futures. As the industry moves from traditional textiles into the highly- engineered nonwovens, new biotextiles and medical textiles, and into radically new products such as nanotextiles, these bright young graduates are more critical than ever. This gift also enables us to strengthen what is already the strongest textile-extension and industry-support program in the world.”

“The Zeis family’s gift reflects their dedication to the mission of NC State,” Chancellor James L. Oblinger said. “The Zeises’ generosity to the university will strengthen the College of Textiles’ education and extension efforts. Just as the education the Zeises received laid the foundation for their future success, this gift ensures that future students will receive similar opportunities.”

In making the gift, the Zeises said the resulting scholarships and center would enable students from all backgrounds to “pursue their life dreams.”

"We have always felt that education is the most valuable gift you can give another human being, and this giving opportunity to the College of Textiles enables us to fulfill our philosophy of life," the Zeises say.

Steve Zeis graduated with a bachelor’s degree from NC State’s College of Textiles in 1962 after coming to the United States from Istanbul in 1957 under a student visa. He credits his education at NC State with providing the foundation for a career spent representing some of Europe’s most prominent textile and plastics machinery manufacturers.

Following graduation, Steve Zeis went to work for Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company in Wilmington, Del., where he worked in research and development, technical services and
eventually in the company’s worldwide textile processing licensing department. The Zeises
moved to Asheville in 1965 when Northrop Carolina, in Swannanoa, hired Steve as it diversified
into textile machinery. When Northrop ended the program, Steve began selling textile machinery, and in 1983 the couple decided to establish their own business – ZTM Sales &
Service Inc. Steve represented a diverse mix of European textile-machine companies, while
Frosene, an honors graduate of the former St. Genevieve of the Pines in Asheville, managed the
business side of ZTM.

“We have watched North Carolina State University grow from around 6,000 students in 1958 to what it is today,” the Zeises said. “We are proud of North Carolina State University’s College of Textiles and are happy to be contributing in some measure toward the fulfillment of the university’s educational objectives while assisting young students to pursue their life dreams,
as we ourselves were able to do.”

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