Ferdinand A. "Ski" Hilenski, II, Director of Development for the Ivan Allen College, died Wednesday, July 29, 2009 from sudden complications due to a lengthy struggle with cancer. He was 62 years old.

Ski enjoyed a long and immensely successful career at Tech. He was Director of Development and Public Relations for the College of Architecture from 1993 to 1999. In 2000, he became the founding development officer for the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. Imaginative and intrepid, Ski shaped the fledging College's development profile mining unconventional sources of funding. In a remarkable tour de force during the last decade, he raised more than $35 million and secured the College's endowment in perpetuity. At the time of his death, he led Georgia Tech academic units in the current funding campaign with commitments totaling 85% of the goal for the College.

Ski received his AB in English and Philosophy from Pfeiffer College (1969), and an MA (1970) and PhD (1974) in English Literature from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He was a FIPSE/Mina Shaughnessy Post-doctoral Fellow at the Harvard School of Education in 1983-4, and a Fulbright Research Fellow to the United Kingdom in 1993. He contributed to numerous scholarly articles and authored and/or edited two books including The CASE Handbook for the Unit Advancement Officer.

Prior to Georgia Tech, Ski worked in development for the UT College of Liberal Arts and served as Associate Dean for Grants and Development for the College of Liberal Arts at the University of South Carolina. Throughout his career, he was active as a teacher and lecturer and in university governance.

Born January 1, 1947 in Key West, Florida, Ski had travelled widely and lived in Morocco and Britain. He loved Georgia Tech and described his work here as "his therapy." Many on campus remember the bow-tie clad Ski as the first person to reach out to them. He had extensive knowledge of Georgia Tech's history and delighted in welcoming new colleagues with his (self-described) "Polish tours" . He was widely regarded as one of the most caring, collaborative, and determined individuals in our midst.

Ski Hilenski is survived by his wife, Lu, a daughter, Cate Hilenski, and a son Jesse Hilenski.

Memorial Service for Ski Hilenski
Saturday, August 22
3:00pm
Atlanta Friends Meeting
701 W. Howard Avenue
Decatur, GA 30030.

In lieu of flowers, the family prefers that Ski be honored by donations through the Georgia Tech Foundation to The Hilenski Memorial Fund. The fund will enrich the Ivan Allen College Initiative - the project on which Ski was working at the time of his death and which he viewed as the most important professional achievement of his life.

Georgia Tech Foundation
Hilenski Memorial Fund
760 Spring Street, NW
Atlanta, GA, 30308.