Mel Rines, a UNH graduate and Navy fighter pilot in World War II and the Korean War had a distinguished career as a managing director and senior international investment banker at Kidder Peabody, advising and financing supranational institutions and sovereign governments. His reconnection with UNH began with seeding and co-directing the International Private Enterprise Center at the Whittemore School of Business and Economics to foster private sector growth in the U.S. and developing contries. This, in turn, led to membership on the school's executive board where he continues to serve today.

Joining the UNH Foundation Board in 1994 (five years after its founding), Mel was elected chairman in 1999. He served as both chairman of the board and national campaign chairman for the UNH Foundation during the Next Horizon campaign, the largest and most ambitious capital campaign ever conducted by a public institution in the state of New Hampshire.

In addition, the couple established the S. Melvin and Mary Jo Rines Art Exhibition Fund in 2001 to assist the University in bringing high quality art and artists to campus for the education and enjoyment of students and the community.

Mary Jo Rines is a professional artist, exhibiting her work nationally. A director and past president of the New England Watercolor Society, she is also a member of the Copley Society in Boston and runs a small Gallery at the First Parish Church in Weston, Massachusetts.