Alumna Gives $128 Million to High School
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/education/19gift.html?ei=5087%0A&em=&en=5f40b4a8f8f70151&ex=1190347200&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1190261042-4db31i51oQPKAva1yP9YqQ
It probably would never have happened if Harvard University had not rejected
Warren E. Buffetts business school application in 1950. But a string of events
originating with Mr. Buffetts disappointment led yesterday to a Quaker high
schools receiving a gift that dwarfs some college endowments: $128 million.
Officials at George School, a prep school in Bucks County, Pa., were
reeling from the contribution, believed to be one of the largest ever to a
secondary school. All I could say was things like, Wow, this is
overwhelming, said Anne Storch, the schools chief fund-raiser.
It all began when Mr. Buffett, long before he became the celebrated investor,
was rejected by Harvard and attended Columbia instead. A business professor
there, David L. Dodd, was so impressed that after Mr. Buffett returned home to
Nebraska and formed an investment partnership, Professor Dodd invested some of
his own money for himself and his daughter.
Mr. Buffett soon acquired a then-obscure textile company named Berkshire
Hathaway, and over the years made his professor and many other early investors
rich.
Professor Dodds daughter, Barbara Dodd Anderson, an alumna of the high
school, yesterday used much of the fortune from that original investment to
endow George School, a private, 500-student institution set on a leafy 240-acre
campus in Newtown, Pa.
It was hard for me at first, because it seems like a ghastly amount of money,
but its going for a worthy cause, said Ms. Anderson, who lives in Fresno,
Calif., where she was once a kindergarten teacher.
Im 75 years old, I have Alzheimers, and Im probably not going to be around
a lot longer, Ms. Anderson said. So I might as well see the money do some
good.
Ms. Anderson said that Mr. Buffetts own breathtaking donation, the $37
billion he gave to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation last year to improve
health and education across the United States and in poor nations, inspired her
to make her donation.
In an interview, Mr. Buffett said Professor Dodd had turned his life around in
1950, when he graduated from the University of Nebraska and was applying to
business school. Harvard rejected his application, and that August, well after
Columbias application deadline, Mr. Buffett wrote to Professor Dodd, whom he
admired as the author of a respected financial text.
Dear Professor Dodd, I thought you were dead, but now that I know that youre
alive, Id like to come study with you, Mr. Buffett said he wrote in his
letter.
And he admitted me to Columbia! Mr. Buffett said. I would not be who I am
today without David Dodd. If in response to my letter hed said, Sorry, its
too late, Id never be where I am.
Harvard did me a big favor by turning me down, he said. But I havent made
any contributions to them in thanks for that.
Mr. Buffett said Ms. Andersons gift was one of several vast philanthropic
contributions made recently by largely unknown and uncelebrated people who have
profited immensely by the appreciation of the stock of Berkshire Hathaway, the
investment and insurance holding company.
Polytechnic University in Brooklyn, for instance, received roughly $200
million in the late 1990s from Donald and Mildred Othmer, friends of Mr.
Buffett.
One fellow who talked to me recently said he had done something with $1
billion, Mr. Buffett said. A lot of people get older and theyre not really
sure what to do with their money if theyve got a lot of it. But Im sure
Barbara was always going to give it to something worthwhile.
Ms. Anderson, born in June 1932, grew up in New York City. Her father enrolled
her at George School in 1946, and she graduated four years later. She attended
St. Lawrence University and earned an M.A. from Columbia Teachers College
before marrying and settling in Fresno.
In the interview, Ms. Anderson said George School had provided her with fine
instruction, encouragement for her work ethic and a family away from home
during years when her mother was sick. She has two grown children.
Ms. Storch of the George School said, We did a lot of research, and as far as
we know this is the largest donation ever to an existing independent school.
The second-largest single donation to a private secondary school Ms. Storch was
able to document, she said, was a 1993 gift of $100 million to Peddie School in
Hightstown, N.J., by the publisher Walter Annenberg.
Comparing donations is complicated by factors like the length of time over
which they are paid out. Ms. Andersons is to be paid over 20 years from a
charitable trust, at a rate of $5 million per year for 15 years and $10.7
million per year for the last five, for a total of $128.5 million, said Ed
Huff, Ms. Andersons accountant.
Still, even colleges dream of this kind of bequest, which dwarfs the
endowments of that of Sarah Lawrence, for example, which the College Board
lists at $66 million.
George Schools endowment was $77 million before Ms. Andersons gift, and parts
of the gift will be used to build faculty housing, raise faculty salaries and
finance scholarships, Ms. Storch said.
This would be one of the largest donations to any secondary school, said
Robert F. Sharpe, a fund-raising consultant in Memphis.
Umesh Sharma
Washington D.C.
1-202-215-4328 [Cell]
Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005
http://www.uknow.gse.harvard.edu/index.html (Edu info)
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/ (Management Info)
www.gse.harvard.edu/iep (where the above 2 are used )
http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/
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