Harvard gets record $100m gift from Rockefeller-USA-World-The Times of India

Harvard gets record $100m gift from Rockefeller-USA-World-The Times of India

Harvard gets record $100m gift from Rockefeller
26 Apr 2008, 0230 hrs IST,REUTERS

BOSTON: Philanthropist David Rockefeller donated a record $100 million to Harvard University's undergraduate programme, the largest gift by a Harvard alumnus in the history of the oldest US college.

About $70 million will be used to expand Harvard's student travel and study abroad programmes and $30 million will go to arts education, the Cambridge, Massachusetts, school said in a statement on Friday.

Rockefeller, 92, the last surviving grandchild of billionaire oil tycoon John Rockefeller, is listed by Forbes magazine as one of the 150 wealthiest Americans, with an estimated fortune of $2.7 billion.

He graduated in 1936 from Harvard College, the school's undergraduate arm.

"Harvard opened my eyes and my mind to the world," Rockefeller said in a statement. "It was because of Harvard's language requirement that I spent the summer of 1933 in Germany and saw firsthand the ominous rise of fascism. And it was at Harvard that I first studied art history," the noted art collector said.