CONTACT:  Mario Aguilera or Debi Purcell (858) 534-3624 scrippsnews@ucsd.edu

MEDIA ADVISORY

PARK GROUNDBREAKING AT SCRIPPS
Pawka family endows a central green on the 
Scripps campus to their late son

WHAT: Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), will hold a groundbreaking ceremony for the Steven Sitter Pawka Memorial Green, endowed by Edward and Nancy Pawka in memory of their son. Steven Pawka received a bachelor's degree in physics from UCSD's Revelle College in June 1971. After conducting research at the Naval Electronics Lab in Point Loma, he completed his doctorate in oceanography at Scripps in 1982. He died of cancer soon after. The park in his honor will serve as a gathering place for the Scripps community.

WHEN: 9:00 a.m., Tuesday, July 16
            
WHERE:  Scripps Institution of Oceanography
(La Jolla Shores Drive to El Paseo Grande. Right on Discovery Way.) The Pawka Green site is framed by Ritter Hall to the north, Vaughan Hall to the east, partly by Sverdrup Hall to the south, and Old Scripps Building and the Pacific Ocean to the west.

EVENT: Scripps faculty, staff, students, and community members will gather to celebrate the groundbreaking of Pawka Green. Professor Robert Guza, who served as Steven's advisor at Scripps, will briefly address the group. Refreshments will be served.

BACKGROUND: The nearly one-acre Pawka Green will be accented by curved seat walls designed to create an outdoor amphitheater effect, also providing places to sit. Benches and colorful pocket gardens also will be incorporated into the space.