July 17, 1928 - November 2, 2025
Art scholar and philanthropist Suzanne G. Valenstein, who was a founding supporter of the Incentive Awards Program at the University of Maryland, died late last year at the age of 97.
Known to her many friends and colleagues as “Sue,” she and her husband helped launch the Suzanne G. and Murray A. Valenstein Baltimore Incentive Awards Program.
Created as a pilot initiative with just nine students in 2006, the program now serves 120 students each year, becoming a life-defining success story for nearly 270 alumni to date.
“It was the early believers like them who gave us the momentum we needed to get going,” said IAP Director Jackie Wheeler Lee. “Their commitment was one rooted in faith, a belief in their hometown, Baltimore, and a deep hope in something yet to be seen. Sue knew that the scholarship would remove a financial barrier and that it does something even more important—it removes a barrier in the minds of students.”
Sue and her husband, Murray Valenstein ’40, an advertising executive who died in 2013, were both natives of Baltimore and graduates of public high schools. They were deeply committed to expanding educational opportunities for students facing financial and personal challenges. Their shared passion was helping talented students receive the support they needed to succeed at the University of Maryland and beyond.
“The Valensteins’ support has been truly transformative—to students, to families, to our communities, and to our campus. They believed that education is the best and most rewarding investment anyone can make in the future of a young person,” said William A. Cohen, associate provost and dean for undergraduate studies. “Their generosity created opportunity and lasting impact that will be felt for generations.”
In addition to their support for the Incentive Awards Program, the Valensteins created a bequest that generously endows a scholarship program that will be known as the Valenstein Merit Scholars.
Beyond her philanthropy, Valenstein was a distinguished research scholar and curator of Chinese ceramics at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Over the course of thirty-five years, she wrote numerous books and publications. She received an honorary doctorate from UMD in May 2012.
Her final scholarly monograph, in 2015, was devoted to the study of a pottery figure of a Tang-dynasty Sogdian wine merchant. She lectured widely on the subject of Chinese ceramic history, including one semester as a visiting professor at Princeton University.
Valenstein followed UMD news and took great pleasure in celebrating the achievements of Incentive Awards Program students. On the 20th anniversary of IAP, Valenstein wrote, “Murray and I were privileged to watch IAP students become IAP alumni and go out into a challenging world. We enjoyed reading about their inestimable successes. And we were proud that so much of their success can be credited to the University of Maryland Incentive Awards Program."
IAP alumna Kelly Smith ’06 recalled how proud Valenstein was of her when she graduated UMD and later earned her master’s degree, bought a house, and started a family and successful career.
“She lifted people up and changed the course of countless lives, mine included,” said Smith, who affectionately called her “GV”—short for Grandma Valenstein. “She made a profound impact not by seeking recognition, but by quietly giving: her time, her wisdom, her love, and her belief in others.”
Valenstein also profoundly touched the lives of students she never met.
“Even though I never had the honor of meeting Suzanne in person, her kindness reached me all the same. It reached my family. It reached my community,” said Gerard Dailey '16, who now works as a bank vice president. “She reminded me, without ever saying a word, that someone believed in my potential long before I fully did. And that’s the beautiful thing about a legacy like hers.”
“Suzanne didn’t just change one life, she created a ripple,” Dailey said at her memorial service, held in November in New York. “Every time I mentor a student, volunteer in my community, or encourage someone who reminds me of where I once was, that ripple continues… Her kindness lives on through every scholar who dares to dream bigger and through every person who strives to give back because someone once gave to them.”
