$11 Million Endowment From Unitarians to Aid Div School

As $11 million endowment to benefit the Divinity School and two other theological schools was pointed by the Unitarian Universalist Association last week.

The incomes from the fund, which represents the legacy of a member of the North Shore Unitarian Universalist Society of Plan-dome. New York, will provide scholarship aid to students, funds for continuing education, and support for ministerial training and religion education program for Unitarian Universalists.

Harvard is the only non-denominational beneficiary of this fund. The other recipients--the Meadville/Lombard Theological School at the University of Chicago and the Thomas Starr King School at Barkeley, Ca--are Unitarian Universalist seminaries.

Calling the endowment a "major initiative by a denominational group to sponsor a non-denominational school." Divinity School Dean Erik Rupp said "we would love to see all the other denominational groups we educate take similar steps." The Div School presently serves 46 denominations.

The Divinity School her had traditionally close ties with the Unitarians ever since in founding in 1816. According to C. Conard Wright, professor of American Church History, the school was "founded, originally endowed and originally staffed by Unitarians."

Unitarian Universalists are now the school's fifth most highly represented denomination, with 28 students of approximately 380.

Harvard's annual revenue from the fund, the exact amount of which is not yet determined, will provide scholarships for women and men training to be Unitarian Universalist ministers, and preserve the archives chronicling Unitarian and Universalist history, which are "by far the largest collection in the world," Rupp said last night.