Loyalty To Bucknell Award

2026 Recipient

Barbara L. Gasper '76 

For Barbara Gasper '76, Bucknell provided a common thread for lifelong friendships, connection and experiences. As a result, she has given her time, talent and treasure to support Bucknell.

After graduating with a bachelor's degree in mathematics, Gasper worked for Lukens Inc. for 21 years, starting her career as a shipping floor supervisor in the steel mill and leaving the company as the corporate treasurer. During that time, she earned an MBA from Widener University. She then went on to serve as the chief investor relations officer for several major public companies, including Raytheon, Lucent Technologies, Ford Motor Company and Mastercard. Following her retirement from the corporate world, Gasper stayed active as an investor relation consultant and currently serves on the board of Main Line Health, a five-hospital health care system in the western Philadelphia suburbs.

After her Bucknell graduation, Gasper moved to the Philadelphia area and joined the Bucknell Philadelphia Alumni Club, serving in several officer positions in the 1990's. Through a professional connection with Melissa Plaisance '82, P'13, Gasper was nominated to the Bucknell University Alumni Association (BUAA) Board where she served for eight years, including five years on the executive committee as the vice president of finance. During that time, she elevated the recognition of the BUAA's two endowed scholarships and attended Scholarship Day in order to meet both her own and the BUAA's scholarship recipients. Currently, she is serving as co-chair of her 50th Reunion.

One of Gasper's most memorable Bucknell experiences were the two Jan Plan trips abroad she took with Professor Richard Peterec, geography and international relations, in the mid-1970s. Through these trips, she developed a love of travel and exploring different cultures — a passion that has since taken her to all seven continents, twice. To honor Professor Peterec's impact on her Bucknell experience, she established the Professor Richard J. Peterec Annual Scholarship in 2018. Believing that the expanded global awareness she gained on those trips should be available to all Bucknell students, she took her philanthropy a step further in 2021 by endowing the Gasper/Peterec Scholarship, which helps support students who wish to study abroad.