Rockefeller Gives Harvard $100 Million: (It all started with a language requirement and a trip to Germany to learn German)

[Harold Schiffman]

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April 25, 2008
Rockefeller Gives Harvard $100 Million
By STEPHANIE STROM
David M. Rockefeller is giving $100 million to Harvard University, his
alma mater.

It is the largest gift by an alumnus in the university's history. Eli
and Edythe Broad made a $100 million gift to the university in 2005,
but they are not alumni. The Rockefeller gift will support
international study programs for undergraduates and support Harvard's
nascent efforts to greatly expand its arts education. "Harvard has
played an important role in my life," Mr. Rockefeller, 92, said in a
telephone interview. "I was a student, class of 1936, and I've been on
the board of overseers. My experiences there shaped who I am."

A language requirement by the college sent Mr. Rockefeller to Germany
in the summer of 1936, which awakened him to the dangers of fascism,
he said, and it was there that he began his study of art, which became
a lifelong passion. Drew Faust, the president of Harvard, said the
gift was critical to the development of additions to the education the
university offers. Harvard has the largest endowment of any university
in the world, with assets of $35 billion, but Dr. Faust said gifts
like Mr. Rockefeller's were still critical.

"To outsiders, our bucket may seem full, but at Harvard, we so often
see aspirations we hope to fulfill that we can never have too many
resources," she said. Last year, about 1,450 Harvard undergraduates
participated in study programs abroad, more than twice as many as four
years ago. But a survey by the university suggested that many more
students would like the chance to study abroad but lacked money . Some
$70 million of Mr. Rockefeller's gift will help address such desires,
while the rest will be devoted to arts programs.

Harvard will not receive the gift until Mr. Rockefeller's death, but
until then, he will give the university $2.5 million a year so it will
ultimately receive more than the value of the gift. Other major gifts
he has made since 2005 have been similarly structured, including a
$225 million gift to the foundation he established with his three
brothers and $100 million gifts to the Museum of Modern Art and
Rockefeller University. Mr. Rockefeller said he had no more large
gifts planned. "I won't guarantee that there won't be another one," he
said. "I won't live forever, but I hope to be around for awhile to
enjoy the ones I've already made."


-- http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/25/education/25harvard.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
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