A Northwestern alumni couple donated $5 million to the School of Communication to endow and rename the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, President Henry Bienen announced Wednesday.

Richard and Roxelyn Pepper donated the money “in the interest of supporting the faculty,” said Dean Garstecki, the department chairman. The donation to the newly named Roxelyn and Richard Pepper Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders was a gift from Richard to Roxelyn.

“I don’t know of another named department in our field,” Garstecki said. “I think this will have tremendous PR for us. This gives our department some security in knowing there will be some money for the department on an annual basis forever.”

Both Richard and Roxelyn Pepper graduated in 1953, Richard with a civil engineering degree and Roxelyn with a communication sciences and disorders degree. Roxelyn is the daughter of J. Roscoe Miller, who served as NU’s president from 1949 to 1970.

“Mrs. Pepper has taken a strong interest in her own department,” Garstecki said. “Whenever I saw her, she would always ask about it. Her husband shared her enthusiasm and also did something special for us.”

An endowed department distinguishes a school and sets it apart from its peers, School of Communication Dean Barbara O’Keefe said.

It is unclear what the money will be used for immediately, but it will be used to “satisfy the intent” of the donors, Garstecki said.

This is not the first time the Peppers have donated to NU. In 1978 they established the Stanley F. Pepper Chair in Civil Engineering to honor Pepper’s father and donated $4 million in 1997 to renovate Technological Institute and endow the undergraduate civil and environmental engineering laboratories. In 2001, the Peppers received NU’s alumni medal, the highest honor given to alumni.

Reach Margaret Matray at [email protected].