Why Did You Give Harvard $1 Million?

Although more than 57,000 people gave money to the Harvard Campaign, almost two-thirds of its $356 million total came from a small group of major contributors.

Roughly 470 gifts of $100,000 or more provided 62 percent of the campaign's total booty. The Crimson approached 11 of those who contributed at least $1 million and asked the question. "Why did you do it?"

New York financier John L. Loeb '24, who gave $1 million to the Design School and another $7.5 million to endow 15 junior professorships: "Most young professors are very underpaid compared to the salaries that they could receive in other fields. It seemed to me that one of the important things for our country, not just for Harvard is that these men and women stay in the profession. . . . All of us owe a debt to Harvard for all that our years there have meant to us throughout our lives. We should be especially grateful for the leadership Harvard has provided in American higher education."

John W. Blodgett '23, retired Michigan lumber company' executive and multimillion-dollar donor of, among other things, Blodgett Pool: "Oh, I don't know. I've always been a Harvard man, and when they needed funds and I've had some. I've given them."

Charles F. Adams '32, retired Raytheon Corp. executive and one of 23 members of the campaign's executive committee: "I think it's the leading educational institution in the world . . . If anything is important to the development of mankind and the world, it's giving bright people the chance for education . . . Also, I'm a sixth-generation Harvard graduate, and I want to pay back for what earlier generations in my family have received."

Robert R. Barker '36, a Manhattan businessman and member of the executive committee: "I think it's--it's gonna sound corny--the greatest university in the world . . . Also, three of my four young people have gone there, and I know first hand how good it is."

St. Louis printing company head Robert Orchard '42, who funded the first joint Faculty of Arts and Sciences--Graduate School of Design professorship in landscape history: "If you don't know what has happened in the past in our society, whether it is in agriculture, in the growth of cities, or in the use of the land, you are going to repeat the mistakes of the past . . . And what I really got out of Harvard was a love of learning about all types of things. It has meant a lot to me over the years in terms of friendships, intellectual stimulation, and the joy of learning something other than what I needed to know for my business career."

Donald P. Loker '25, retired in Oceanside, California, who said his recollection of the English faculty of the 1920s inspired him to endow the Loker Professorship in English: "I hope that when those at the College today are as far out in the world as we are, they will look back with the same amount of awe and affection to their instruction at Harvard."

An Wang, who got a Ph.D. at Harvard in 1948 on his way from China to founding the hugely successful Wang Corp. of Lowell, Mass., who gave about $4 million: "My own education at Harvard was at the graduate level. It was and has been of great benefit to me. I believe deeply in the value of graduate study not only in applied fields, but in areas of pure research as well."

Landon T. Clay '50, chairman of Eaton, Vance Corp. in Boston, who established a fund to pay for junior science faculty's research projects. "An excellent faculty must be the University's highest priority. Since young scientific faculty have a particularly difficult time receiving the support [they need] to establish themselves in their fields, financial support at this critical point in their careers can have maximum effectiveness."

Douglas Dillon '31, a Manhattan businessman and member of the executive committee: "The campaign has been remarkable from the beginning because it clearly addresses the needs of the future, and does so in a manner that points the way for higher education over the rest of this century. There's no glitter, nothing extra about this drive. It's directed at achieving goals that benefit the most essential aspects of Harvard's mission."

Lewis P. Geyser '57, Hawaii lawyer and real estate developer, who endowed a University Professorship now held by Henry Rosovsky, former dean of the faculty of Arts and Sciences: "I knew [in 1979] that I would give: I just didn't realize how the campaign would focus my thinking about Harvard over the next few years, or how that focus would result in my giving far more than I ever expected or, for that matter, thought myself capable of doing . . . I can only say that, for me, the pleasure and exhiliration of being able to support Harvard far exceeded my apprehension."

New Jersey industrialist Ira Kukin, who received a Ph.D. in chemistry from Harvard in 1951 and this October gave $5 million to help set up a society of international fellows for scholars in international relations: "First, I owed it to Harvard. I got my education there, and it made a big difference to me. Second, I felt I was being given the opportunity to do something for mankind [through establishing the society of fellows] . . . . And finally, when all is said and done, there's a very simple reason for my gift. I feel very proud of Harvard, and I can assure you I'm giving back to it far less than I took."