Michael Kuhlin and Sara Rohr met as BGSU students in the late 1960s. Sara attended from 1967 to 1969 and Michael from 1964 to 1968, receiving a journalism degree in 1968 and going on to a distinguished career in corporate communications with Ameritech, now AT&T, retiring as senior director of corporate communications. Currently he is associated with Voyage Financial Group, where he leads the firm's branding, marketing and communications.
He served on the BGSU Foundation, Inc. Board of Directors from 2006-2010 and returned in May to start a new term. He is also currently a member of the Leadership Council for Student Affairs.
As a student, Mike was actively involved in student organizations on campus, including Delta Tau Delta and the BG News, which led to him being selected as BGSU's Outstanding Greek Man in 1968 and a member of the Omicron Delta Kappa national leadership honor society.
Both also worked at the University. Sara was employed in the Administration Building and the Office of Financial Aid from 1969 to 1971. Mike worked in the Office of the Dean of Students as a residence hall director and was an assistant director in the Office of Career Planning and Placement from 1968 to 1971. They married on campus, in Prout Chapel, on Dec. 11, 1971. Their 42 years together included many trips back to campus before Sara passed away in 2013.
"In addition to finding each other, the learning and maturing we experienced at BGSU gave us an extraordinary foundation to build our lives," Mike said.
To honor Sara's memory and all that BGSU meant to them, Mike has made a generous gift to the university for the formerly named South Hall which is now known as the Michael & Sara Kuhlin Center. Since 2014 the building has undergone a complete renovation, including the addition of a wing to the west of the existing building. The Kuhlin Center is the new home to the School of Media and Communication, which includes the departments of communication, journalism and public relations, and media production and studies (formerly telecommunications).
"We were honored to previously endow and establish the Mike and Sara Kuhlin Scholarship for Exceptional Student Leadership to support students who have distinguished themselves by their involvement in extracurricular activities. This new gift for the building provides a lasting tribute to Sara and everything that BGSU meant to us by supporting a dynamic home for students in media and communications."
"I am thankful for the generosity of Mike and Sara’s leadership gift for this exciting building renovation," Mary Ellen Mazey, Ph.D., president of Bowling Green State University said. "With Mike's distinguished career in communications, it is fitting that the new facility for the BGSU School of Media and Communication be named the Michael & Sara Kuhlin Center."
