$1M to spur college growth; Pharmacy school renames refurbished center after donor.

• Position: LOCAL NEWS

Byline: Ashley Bishop

WORCESTER - Thomas H. Borysek knew he was destined for a career in the pharmaceutical industry when he began working in a drugstore as a seventh-grader.

"I started at a drugstore back when drugstores used to have real soda fountains and I've always loved medicine," he said. "Then I became the first in my family to go to college; both my parents left school after the eighth grade so they could make money to support their families."

Mr. Borysek graduated in 1965 from the Boston campus of the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, and has spent the last 41 years working for the Food and Drug Administration as a liaison pharmacist with the Veterans Health Administration.

His $1 million donation to the Worcester campus of the college was celebrated during a ceremony on Foster Street yesterday afternoon. Students, alumni, family and friends braved the raw weather for the outdoor event, which featured performances by the Magnificat Academy Choir and speeches by college administrators and city officials.

The donation went toward the refurbishment of the campus' Living and Learning Center at 25 Foster St., which originally opened in August 2005. During the event yesterday, the facility was officially renamed the "Thomas Henry Borysek Living and Learning Center."

The nine-story building features six floors or residences, two floors of academic space, faculty offices, laboratories, a conference room and an outdoor patio space.

The building is also the new home for MassMedLine, the college's statewide prescription assistance hot line.

"I was thoroughly impressed by the building," Mr. Borysek said. "The college was very smart to find this location, right in the heart of the city, so that they can continue to grow with Worcester."

The college, which also has campuses in Boston and Manchester, N.H., is...