October 29, 2007
Furman U. President Ponies Up
Almost every college president is a pro at approaching donors with hat in hand. But not many presidents first put their own money in those hats.
So it was newsworthy when Furman University on Friday announced a $400-million campaign in which the university’s president, David E. Shi, had made a $1-million pledge.
Mr. Shi made the pledge with his wife, Susan, whom he met on a blind date at Furman when they were both undergraduates at the university. A historian, Mr. Shi is a prolific essayist and has written two books that were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.
A Furman official said in a news release that Mr. Shi’s $1-million gift “is one of the largest gifts any sitting president has ever made to a university campaign.”
Does Mr. Shi now hold the record?
Paul Fain | Posted on Monday October 29, 2007 | PermalinkComments
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I believe Columbia’s president, Seth Low, Jr., donated $1 million in the late 19th century to pay for a library (now an administration building) named after his father. The gift would be vastly larger in 2007 dollars, but I don’t know if it was part of a capital campaign. There may not even have been capital campaigns as we know them back then, but Columbia was building a new campus and preparing to abandon an old one so it may have had a large-scale fund drive of some sort.
— CU Alum Oct 30, 03:36 PM #
Nido Qubein gave $1M to High Point University a few weeks after being installed as their new president last year. I also believe the donation was part of a campaign he initiated after taking office.
— HPU friend Nov 1, 05:44 AM #
Although not from a president, Penn State football coach and faculty member Joe Paterno gave several million dollars to PSU for a new library. I can’t recall the exact amount, but believe it was roughly $4 million. The gift was made a few years ago and the new PSU library is named in Paterno’s honor.
— Nittany Lion Nov 3, 09:09 AM #
It seems that Nancy Cantor, the Chancellor and President of Syracuse, also recently gave $1 million toward her school’s capital campaign: http://sunews.syr.edu/story_details.cfm?id=4525
— CU Alum Nov 3, 11:10 PM #