The couple who recently gifted and pledged $50 million to the College of William and Mary — the school’s all-time record donation — want to remain anonymous.
“It’s a couple, an alumni couple, but I can’t go beyond that,” William and Mary spokesman Brian Whitson said Monday. “They really wanted the focus of the gift to be on the university and not them. We are very thankful and want to respect their wishes.”
He declined to say where they live, so as not to “run the risk” that someone could identify them that way.
The couple recently gave the school $44 million and pledged another $6 million going forward, for a total commitment of $50 million, the school said. In announcing that gift and pledge last week, Whitson released this prepared statement from the couple:
“We believe in the power of giving back and its ability to change or improve a worthy cause. We hope our gift to William & Mary will help it become an even stronger institution, graduating superbly educated students who are well equipped to go out in the world and do great things.”
When you think about it, the $50 million commitment is also a gift to the Commonwealth of Virginia and its taxpayers.
William and Mary is, after all, a state university. It depends on annual budgetary allocations from the General Assembly — as well as student tuition, room and board and fees — to cover its operating costs. Fundraising efforts can help offset state funding stagnation and tuition hikes, and provide money for things the university couldn’t otherwise afford.
The $44 million the couple already gave includes $40 million for two new scholarship endowments at the law and business schools. It also includes $2 million for a new teaching award at the law and business schools, and $2 million endowment for an annual leadership conference.
“This family’s extraordinary generosity to our law and business schools ensures that a William & Mary education will be available to many more outstanding students than would otherwise be possible,” William and Mary President Taylor Reveley said in a statement.
Law school dean Davison M. Douglas and business school dean Larry Pulley both praised the donation.
“This transformative gift, the largest in the law school’s 236-year history, is a powerful catalyst to our mission of educating highly skilled and ethical lawyers who are equipped to make a difference for the greater good,” Douglas said in a statement.
“I hold high these donors as examples of the best that William & Mary and the world have to offer,” Pulley said in a statement. “Their insight and vision in making this gift will forever change us and inspire us for the good.”
The $50 million donation — which spearheads W&M’s ambitious $1 billion fundraising effort — surpasses the school’s previous gift records.
Walter J. Zable — a 1937 W&M graduate and founder and chief executive of a San Diego technology company — donated $23.9 million upon his death two years ago at age 97, with most of that money going to football scholarships and stadium renovations. He and his wife had previously given another $5.5 million, for a total of $29.4 million.
Zable, a physics major, was an honorable-mention All-American in football and lettered in basketball, baseball and track. He then founded Cubic Corporation, which specializes in military-training technology systems and automated fare-collection equipment. W&M’s football stadium now bears his name.
Another donor, Roy R. Charles, gave $24.5 million to W&M upon his death in 1999. He graduated from W&M in 1932 and was a member of the Board of Visitors. His donation paid for the Roy R. Charles Center for Academic Excellence, designed to help faculty development and student research and learning.
Accreditation ratings to be released
The Virginia Department of Education will release accreditation ratings for the state’s public schools on Tuesday, allowing parents to see how their kids’ schools are faring.
The ratings are designed to be a standard yardstick for measuring a school’s effectiveness. The new ratings will differentiate schools that are close to meeting accreditation requirements — or are making significant progress — from those that are not.
Read more online or look in Wednesday’s newspaper about how schools in the Daily Press’ coverage area performed.
Peter Dujardin and Jane Hammond cover education for the Daily Press. Dujardin can be reached at 757-247-4749 and Hammond can be reached at 757-247-4951.
