MARCH 12 • 2020 | 39

Ron Weiser Gifts $10M for U-M’
s 
New Real Estate Center 

Ron Weiser, chair of the University of 
Michigan Board of Regents, gifted $10 
million to the U-M Stephen M. Ross 
School of Business last month to help 
expand student courses with the launch 
of a new real estate center.
The new Weiser Center for Real Estate 
will give students the opportunity to learn 
from real estate professionals and apply 
their knowledge with practical training. 
The center will also work alongside other 
schools on the U-M campus, including the 
A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture 
and Urban Planning and the Gerald R. 

Ford School of Public Policy.
Weiser, who is Jewish, graduated from 
the Ross School of Business in 1966 and 
is the founder of a national real estate 
company, McKinley Associates Inc., based 
in Ann Arbor. 
The new center will offer undergrad-
uate and graduate courses ranging from 
real estate finance to sustainable devel-
opment. It will also help Ross further 
develop U-M’
s current real-estate certifi-
cation program, in coordination with the 
Taubman College. A minor in real estate 
will also be curated. 

Catholics. Yet he marvels at the similarities 
between them and their Jewish partner. 
“I have a couple close Jewish friends and 
we always talk about being Jewish and being 
Christian and how close they are. The main 
thing of religion is to love one another. That’
s 
the ground we’
re all on,
” he says. 
One of their attorneys, Alex jests, has even 
joked that Eckhous is, in fact, more Chaldean 
than Jewish: after all, Abraham originally 
came from Ur of the Chaldeans before jour-
neying to Canaan. 
“Even our dialect is similar,
” Alex says 
with a smile. “Chaldeans speak [a form of] 
Aramaic; Jews say shalom, we say shlonukh. 
It’
s amazing how close we are.
” 
 
BUILDING THE BUSINESS 
In 2015, the trio patented a process for creat-
ing a concrete block speckled with chips that 
absorb the sun’
s ultraviolet rays and give off a 
blue, green or aqua hue at night. But only in 
the last half-year or so has business begun in 
earnest. 
In that time, Glow Path has finalized a 
contract with a manufacturer in Southern 
California, showcased at the World of 
Concrete fair in Las Vegas and booked doz-

CORRIE COLF STAFF WRITER

ISTOCK

continued on page 40

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