In recognition, the inpatient tower will have two named spaces: the John F. Wolfe Lobby and the Wolfe Foundation Crossroads, pending approval by the university’s board of trustees at its February meeting.

John F. Wolfe was well known as the publisher of The Columbus Dispatch and served as chair and CEO of The Dispatch Printing Company. Beyond his professional contributions, Wolfe had a deep spirit of altruism that came from the generations before him and continues in his family today. As a civic leader, he made an impact on projects across the city to help Columbus realize its potential.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine had many opportunities to work with John F. Wolfe over about 30 years of their careers. He reflected on the understated way the Wolfe family has influenced progress in the community.

“Few people know, or will ever know, even half of the good works John F. Wolfe and Ann Wolfe put their shoulders behind to benefit Columbus and central Ohio. They preferred to be a quiet force for good with lasting impact,” DeWine said. “I think John F. Wolfe would be delighted about his family’s continued efforts to improve the quality of life in central Ohio, and health care is vital to quality of life.”

John F. Wolfe spent much of his time and resources stewarding the vision and growth of The Ohio State University and its health care system through 20-plus years of service on various boards. His widow, Ann Wolfe, has a long tradition of championing health care institutions, including serving as a member of the University Hospitals Board and as the longtime chair of the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Foundation Board.

The Wolfe family’s legacy of service and generosity can be found across many Columbus institutions, including COSI, the Franklin Park Conservatory, the Scioto Mile and the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. At Ohio State, the Wolfe family has supported many initiatives including cancer research, veterinary medicine, athletic facilities, scholarships and eight endowed chairs and professorships.

“This is a special day for our university, our region and our state,” said Ohio State President Walter “Ted” Carter Jr. “John F. Wolfe’s family and the Wolfe Foundation are building on his lifelong commitment to creating a bright future for the Columbus community. We are grateful for their remarkable investment in the inpatient tower and our medical center. It will enable us to continue serving Ohioans and providing expert care to patients and families that is at the forefront of medicine.”

At 1.9 million square feet and 24 floors, the inpatient tower is 75% complete. It is the single largest facilities project undertaken at Ohio State. The hospital is designed for flexible and team-based care that centers around the patient and their family. Its interdisciplinary focus will allow for collaborative teaching, research and clinical trials throughout the building. With up to 820 private rooms and 51 neonatal intensive care beds, it will add much-needed capacity to care for the growing community. According to the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission, central Ohio is expected to add nearly 1 million people in the next 20-25 years.

“Patients and families are at the center of everything we do at the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center, and our new inpatient tower will further ensure that we are able to provide the very best care for everyone, every time,” said John J. Warner, CEO of the Wexner Medical Center and executive vice president at Ohio State. “Through this transformational gift honoring John F. Wolfe, the Wolfe family and the Wolfe Foundation remain steadfast in their commitment to improving people’s lives within our community. John F. Wolfe’s legacy as a community leader and philanthropist is still helping to shape the skyline of Columbus, and we are honored that our vision for the future of the Wexner Medical Center aligns with what he and others envisioned for the future of central Ohio and the entire state.”

John F. Wolfe also supported Ohio State’s goal to create a nationally renowned academic medical center. He was instrumental in the construction of the original James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute, which opened in 1990 and has steadily grown ever since. When the inpatient tower opens, The James will gain 148 beds and become the second-largest cancer hospital in the country.

Philanthropic commitments such as this gift from the Wolfe Foundation play a critical role in speeding progress toward new treatments and teaching opportunities for the generations to come.

“John F. and the Wolfe family have been the catalyst for many of Ohio State’s accomplishments over the course of multiple decades,” said Andrew Thomas, who was honored as the inaugural Wolfe Foundation Chief Clinical Officer in 2021. “It is inspiring to see how Ann, her family and the Wolfe Foundation have continued to carry on John F.’s legacy, with this leadership commitment to the inpatient tower.”

Now, after giving $7.5 million to The Ohio State University College of Human Ecology in July for children’s literacy, the professor emerita has again shown her commitment to paying it forward. Her new $2 million gift supports Literacy Collaborative, the college’s comprehensive school literacy model for grades K-8. 

The Literacy Collaborative is a nonprofit venture designed to lift the expertise of teachers and help them fulfill their dreams for their students.

Jamie Lipp, interim lead for Literacy Collaborative and Reading Recovery, calls the gift a blessing. “Not only will it help us be more financially secure, but it will allow us to grow and expand, have some flexibility. It’ll be used over five years to address needs within the project.” 

Training in how to use the long-standing model in schools has been self-sustaining for decades. But with district budget cuts due to the pandemic, Pinnell’s gift will ensure a funding stream to sustain the college’s Literacy Collaborative trainers. 

The trainers currently work with 25 school districts in five states, including Ohio. According to the most recent data, the coaches and teachers in the districts enhanced the learning of 8,640 students that academic year.

“Our society benefits when we have fully literate citizens,” said Don Pope-Davis, dean of the College of Education and Human Ecology. “By creating Literacy Collaborative, Dr. Pinnell has enriched our college’s reputation as a leader in supporting young children’s education. We appreciate her latest gift to keep Literacy Collaborative strong.” 

Literacy Collaborative boosts whole-school literacy learning  

“Teacher expertise, teachers’ knowledge and skills, make more of a difference to student learning than any other single factor,” Lipp said. “Literacy Collaborative is an investment in teacher expertise. It provides long-term professional development, which is known to hone professional skills over time.”

Wendy Reed, a college-level Literacy Collaborative trainer, said the model does not assume there is only one way to teach. “The trainers guide coaches and teachers to be responsive based on learners’ strengths and needs,” she said. “We train them to recognize the assets kids bring to their learning, to gather data showing what each child is learning and to build on it.” 

Joining the collaborative begins with training for a school building’s chosen literacy coach, who receives 230 hours over 12 to 15 months.

“Initial coach training is rigorous,” said Shelly Schaub, also a college-level Literacy Collaborative trainer, “yet districts come back year after year for ongoing professional learning.” 

When the building coach is ready to move forward, the collaborative trains leadership at all levels of the building, from classroom teachers to administrators. 

“As everyone becomes trained, they know it’s not about learning to teach a particular program or curriculum,” Lipp said. “You are building their literacy understanding and creating expert teachers who are equipped and empowered to make instructional decisions and feel confident that those decisions are based on the needs of those learners.” 

School moved from F to B in two years

Schools join the collaborative in a variety of ways and for different reasons. “Some realize their students are not making the gains they would like to see,” said Schaub. “Rather than purchasing a resource to hand to teachers, they decide to invest in teacher professional learning and tend to find their way to Literacy Collaborative.” 

Southeast Primary School, serving K-2 in the Southeast City Schools District of rural Ravenna, Ohio, took this route. After two years as principal, David Fesemyer concluded that the school’s talented, highly educated teachers were working incredibly hard for results that, based on data, didn’t align with the effort. 

“Fifty percent of our kids were a grade level behind (in literacy development) when they came to us in kindergarten,” he said of the school’s approximately 300 students. “When they left … at the end of second grade, 50% were still behind.” 

The district’s curriculum director, Kim Davis, recommended Literacy Collaborative.

Teacher buy-in is essential in adopting the collaborative. Fesemyer had built trust among his school’s teachers, and they liked the idea of an investment in their talent.

Plus, “he took all of the teachers ... to a school that was using Literacy Collaborative,” said Michelle Rentsch, previously the Southeast Primary literacy coach and now principal since Fesemyer’s retirement. “They could actually see the work being done in a classroom to make sure they felt, ‘Yes, we can see ourselves doing this.’”

Once trained, Rentsch said she gained access to the college’s trainers for questions, as well as “an amazing community of coaches in Ohio. It’s like a huge family of support,” she said. “My training at Ohio State was by far the best I ever had in my career.” 

In a record two years, the district’s K-2 students catapulted from an F to a B in literacy, according to their state report card.

Since then, the students have received an A in their state report card for two years in a row. The Ohio Board of Education also presented the school with its All A Award. 

Learning expands from literacy to social studies, science, math 

In Literacy Collaborative, students spend a 2 ½-hour block daily in literacy learning, including interactive read aloud, reading workshop, writing workshop, guided reading and word study.

“Our kids have always loved reading books,” Rentsch said, “but now, the way they talk about authors, you would think they know them personally. (It’s) because they’ve done author studies … and they’ve read every one of their books and had book talks. Those conversations have gone to a deeper level with our students.” 

The Southeast teachers also integrate social studies and science reading within the literacy block, so students make connections. The collaborative has even impacted the school’s math program, which is now taught in small groups using activities and shared exploration. This approach helps students gain understanding and build meaning.

“It’s a similar model to what we do in Literacy Collaborative,” Rentsch said, “because we’ve seen how powerful it is.”

The Newark City School District has worked with Literacy Collaborative since 1995, not long after Pinnell and colleagues trained the first coach in 1993. Since that time, the district has maintained its own coach trainer. Denise Rowe took on that role in 2015.

In addition to the college’s twice-yearly training for Newark’s coaches, Rowe provides ongoing professional development for the two Newark coaches at each of their seven elementary schools.

Rowe feels her work with the coaches brings ongoing benefits, including “instructional rounds” in which she models a lesson, then teachers practice it. “It’s being able to support teachers with cutting-edge research, fresh knowledge and how to implement it in their classrooms,” she said.

Thanks to the collaborative, the district’s third-grade reading scores have doubled their growth rate in the last three years compared to similar districts. They continue to trend upward to meet state expectations. 

Rentsch said Pinnell visited their district in April 2019, showing that she truly cares about the schools using the literacy framework that she spent so many years developing and perfecting through research. 

Rowe said that since joining the Newark district early in her career, everything she’s known has been based on Pinnell’s work. “What a blessing (it is) to have her impacting so many teachers and coaches and professionals and students,” Rowe said. “Her work is just so far reaching.” 

Ohio State University Professor Emerita Gay Su Pinnell, MA ’68, PhD ’75, has committed $7.5 million from her charitable fund with The Columbus Foundation to the College of Education and Human Ecology — the largest philanthropic contribution made by an individual or foundation in the college’s history.

The gift will support an endowed professorship in reading, the first endowed clinical professorship at Ohio State, also for reading, and funds for literacy education.

In recognition of her Ohio State legacy, the Pinnell Professorship in Reading will honor her years of scholarship and practice that helped children who struggle to read. Through Pinnell’s tireless efforts, Reading Recovery, the intervention she helped bring to North America with colleagues 35 years ago, has provided high-quality reading instruction to over 2.3 million first-graders in the lowest 20 percent of their classes in reading.

Pinnell ensured that Ohio State holds the license to Reading Recovery and conducts the intervention in concert with 12 other university training centers in North America. Based on research evidence of effectiveness, the federal government’s What Works Clearinghouse ranks Reading Recovery the highest among 24 other reading curricula and literacy instructional strategies for students from kindergarten through third grade.

Pinnell focused her career on research to ensure the effectiveness of the intervention. A large study by independent researchers completed in 2015 showed that low-progress first-graders taught by Reading Recovery teachers were learning to read 120 percent to 166 percent faster than typical rates of learning for first-graders.

“These faculty positions and literacy funds will honor the scholarship and teaching of Dr. Pinnell in perpetuity,” said Bruce A. McPheron, executive vice president and provost. “Throughout her remarkable career, she has worked to foster greater understanding about how teachers can best position young readers for lifelong success.”

Pinnell was inducted into the college’s Hall of Fame in 2015 in recognition of her many contributions. Her gift is also the largest to the college since last year’s launch of Time and Change: The Ohio State Campaign, which has three core areas of focus: student success, discovery and healthy, vibrant communities.

“Dr. Pinnell has become a nationally known champion of young, struggling readers by increasing the college’s scholarly reputation and practice through programs based on rigorous research,” said College of Education and Human Ecology Dean Don Pope-Davis. “We greatly appreciate that Dr. Pinnell has chosen to invest in the education of children through this transformative gift.”

Pinnell has named the Mary Fried Endowed Clinical Professorship in honor of her colleague and friend who joined Ohio State in 1984 to take part in the original Reading Recovery pilot study. Fried has remained with Ohio State ever since, becoming well known nationwide as she provides professional development for teachers in Reading Recovery and the Literacy Collaborative.

"I consider teaching children to harness language through Reading Recovery and Literacy Collaborative vitally important,” Pinnell said. “I named the clinical professorship for my colleague and friend Mary because she exemplifies the consummate literacy educator. The ongoing professional development that she and the other educators provide opens the eyes of teachers and their coaches to the power and effect of their teaching.”

The Fried Clinical Professor will serve as a bridge between Reading Recovery and the Literacy Collaborative, which will be supported by the Literacy Collaborative Endowed Training Fund. The training fund will provide leadership and expert support to the collaborative, a comprehensive school reform project for grades K-8. Since 1986, the collaborative has partnered with school districts nationwide to train teams of teachers, administrators and coaches focused on improving children’s literacy skills.

Pinnell’s body of work includes her ongoing collaboration with Professor Irene Fountas, Lesley University, in creating The Fountas & Pinnell Classroom Guided Reading Collection, a literacy program published by Heinemann, a division of Houghton, Mifflin, Harcourt. This program helps children around the world advance their ability to process increasingly challenging books with fluency and comprehension.