By Julianna Parker Jones

Transcript Staff Writer

TULSA — The University of Oklahoma School of Social Work will be renamed for Tulsa philanthropists who made a tradition of giving to others on birthdays, the OU Board of Regents approved at their regular meeting Wednesday in Tulsa.

Henry and Anne Zarrow would go shopping for gifts for the homeless every year on the day that was both their anniversary and Henry's birthday. This year, when Henry Zarrow celebrated his 93rd birthday, his family decided to give a gift from their foundation to celebrate.

The Anne and Henry Zarrow Foundation of Tulsa gave $5 million to the OU School of Social work to construct a new building for the school.

Henry Zarrow and his children, Judy Kishner and Stuart Zarrow, sat in the back of the auditorium Wednesday at OU Tulsa where the

announcement about the gift was made. After the regents voted to name the school and the new facility in the Zarrows' honor, the crowd at the meeting burst into applause and gave the Zarrow family a standing ovation.

OU President David Boren praised Henry Zarrow and his late wife, Anne, for a lifelong generosity.

“He’s a teacher, and I think we all recognize him as a teacher because he’s taught us all how to live better lives,” Boren said of Henry. The School of Social Work is housed in Rhyne Hall, a former fraternity house on the eastern edge of the Norman campus. It has been difficult to find donors to fund a new facility, or any other major needs in the school of social work, Boren said, because very few social work graduates end up on the list of the Forbes 500.

“They’re unsung heroes,” Boren said of social work graduates. “They’re not compensated by any measure that reflects the value of what they do to this society.”

The new social work building will be in the center of the Norman campus on the current site of the Jim Thorpe Multicultural Center, 700 Elm Ave.

Julianna Parker Jones

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