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January 4, 2026

Donor Spotlight: Diana Lee Morabito ’77, MS ’80, and Keith Ball, MS ’80

Diana Lee Morabito ’77, MS ’80, and Keith Ball, MS ’80, received a tour of the Engineering Building's new Fabrication Lab during a visit to campus earlier this year. Diana Lee Morabito ’77, MS ’80, and Keith Ball, MS ’80, received a tour of the Engineering Building's new Fabrication Lab during a visit to campus earlier this year.
Diana Lee Morabito ’77, MS ’80, and Keith Ball, MS ’80, received a tour of the Engineering Building's new Fabrication Lab during a visit to campus earlier this year. Image Credit: Jonathan Cohen.
By Chris Kocher
November 16, 2021

You don’t need to give tens of thousands of dollars to make a difference at the Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science. Every gift propels our educational and research endeavors to the next level. Each dollar from alumni, sponsors and friends helps with scholarships, faculty hiring, student recruitment, high-tech equipment and so many other aspects of the Watson experience. Click here to donate.

When someone from Binghamton University’s Office of Development met with Diana Lee Morabito ’77, MS ’80, and Keith Ball, MS ’80, at an alumni event in 2010 and suggested that they establish a scholarship, it seemed an unlikely idea.

“She said, ‘We’d like you to consider having an endowment at SUNY,’ and we were both looking at her like she’s crazy,” Morabito says with a laugh. “We made good salaries, but we weren’t rich. We didn’t have a million dollars to give.”

However, when they learned that they could make their gift in installments and got matching funds from their employers, they went for it.

The Broome County Community Scholarship, started in 2011, gives tuition aid to someone from the Binghamton region (as Morabito is) and is aimed at first-generation college students (as both Morabito and Ball are).

“One of the reasons we give is that it makes a difference for families,” Morabito says. “You go to school, you get an educa- tion, you make more money and you can help your sister go to college or you can help her daughter go to college. It affects so many people because you’ve helped that one person.”

Since that first year, the couple has given an annual gift to support the University, and Watson College has been a frequent recipient of their generosity. Most recently, they supported the new Watson College Scholars Program, which aids populations underrepresented in engineering and computer science.

Morabito and Ball attained graduate degrees in computer science from Binghamton University’s School of Advanced Technology (the precursor to Watson) before launching their tech careers, which ultimately took them to Silicon Valley. Binghamton, though, is where it all started — where they met, fell in love, got a great education and embarked on life’s journey together.

“The value for the students who come to Binghamton is the highest, but the value for the donors also is the highest,” Ball says. “You get the best return on your investment at an institution like Watson College. This is the place where you really can make a difference.”