Ramapo College’s nursing program is about to be updated. School officials and area dignitaries gathered with an eager group of nursing students last week to thank Myron "Mike" and Elaine Adler, the local philanthropists whose $2M donation will help pay for the school’s new Adler Center for Nursing Excellence.

Last Thursday, the school community broke ground on the new center, which is scheduled to be finished by the end of 2013.

On behalf of the couple, Mike addressed the crowd to explain one of the reasons why they decided to make the donation to the new nursing center.

“My father was a doctor [who graduated] in 1904, when medicine was an art, not a science,” he said. “I know he would have been very proud to have the Adler name grace this building.”

The donation will be used to double the size of the college's simulation nursing lab, create new computer labs, and build a tiered classroom.  

Ramapo College President Peter Mercer called the new center “state of the art.” It will be used not only for students, but also for professional development courses for nurses at area hospitals that partner with the college. According to Mercer, Ramapo’s nursing program grows every year.

The Adlers founded the  The Myron Manufacturing Corporation, a mail order production company, in 1949. The couple has a long history of philanthropy to Ramapo College, and to other organizations, including The Adler Aphasia Center in Maywood. The center caters to patients with aphasia, which Mike has lived with since suffering a stroke in 1994.

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