Chinese businessman Gerald Chan explained the story behind his family foundation’s $350 million gift to Harvard’s School of Public Health on Monday.
The donation by his family’sMorningside Foundation is the largest Harvard has ever received and one of the largest ever given to an institute of higher education.
Chan said the donation was inspired by his mother’s volunteer work, vaccinating children in China in the 1950s. Chan’s mother, a nurse, administered vaccines to neighborhood children in the family kitchen, using the same needle repeatedly and disinfecting it in boiling water.
“As you can imagine, the needle was blunted by repeated use, so the injections got extraordinarily painful,” said the Hong Kong property developer. “It was no wonder that many children screamed and wailed in our kitchen.”
Chan said he was also inspired by his father’s decision to support the education of friends’ children overseas.
“In keeping with my mother’s work in improving people’s health and my father’s commitment to education, my brothers and I thought it most fitting to celebrate their legacy with a gift to Harvard School of Public Health,” he said.
School of Public Health Renamed with $350 Million Gift, Largest in Harvard History
By MATTHEW Q. CLARIDA, CRIMSON STAFF WRITER13 hours ago
A charitable foundation run in part by Gerald L. Chan, an alumnus and longtime benefactor of the Harvard School of Public Health, has pledged $350 million to the school, the largest single donation in Harvard’s history, the University is set to announce later today.
In recognition of the gift, the University will rename the school the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, in honor of Chan’s late father. This is the first time in its history that Harvard has renamed one of its schools in recognition of philanthropy. Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government was named in memorial of former United States President John F. Kennedy ’40 in 1966.
The Harvard School of Public Health in Boston will be renamed the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health following the announcement of a $350 million gift to the school.
The gift comes from the Morningside Foundation, which is supported by Gerald Chan and his brother Ronnie Chan. It will be officially announced at 12:30 p.m at an event at the School of Public Health in the Longwood Medical Area.
The gift is among the largest single donations in the history of higher education. Only a handful, including gifts of $1 billion to Vedanta University in India and $600 million to the California Institute of Technology, have been larger.
The gift’s principal amount of $350 million will be handled by the Harvard Management Company as a part of the University's endowment, and annual dividends will flow into the School of Public Health’s budget, which is heavily reliant on federal and non-federal sponsorship. As of June 2013, the school’s portion of the University's endowment total was valued at a little more than $1.1 billion.
Gerald Chan, who made his fortune in private equity and venture capital, earned two degrees at the School of Public Health in the 1970s and has remained involved in the school. Chan’s Morningside Foundation endowed a professorship at the School of Public Health in 2012, the same year he addressed the school’s graduates at its annual commencement exercises. He has also served as a member of the school’s board of dean’s advisors and taught a Wintersession course at the school.
Gerald L. Chan, an alumnus of the School of Public Health, has pledged to give $350 million to the school through his family's foundation.
Chan, who lives in Newton, Mass., has alsoquietly bought more than $100 million in real estate in Harvard Square in recent years. His father, after whom the school is named, founded one of Hong Kong’s largest real estate firms in 1960.
“I’ve been around Harvard for 40 plus years now, and I really feel that the School of Public Health has a very unique voice,” Chan said in an interview Friday. “There are parts of the school which speak for economic efficiency. There are parts for the school which speak for other approaches to solving problems…. I think the HSPH has a very unique voice which should be heard more clearly within the larger community.”
Chan and top University officials spoke with The Crimson under the condition that their remarks not be published until midnight Monday.
Chan said that he approached William F. Lee ’72, a longtime friend and the senior fellow of the Harvard Corporation, with a rough proposal for the gift about six months ago.
“I brought this up to Bill to see if it was doable, to see if it was interesting,” Chan said. “And they thought it was interesting.”
Chan’s gift comes seven months after Kenneth C. Griffin ’89 gave $150 million to the College and the Business School, with most of the money earmarked for undergraduate financial aid. Driven by gifts from Griffin and others, the Harvard Campaign—which launched publicly last September with a goal of $6.5 billion—has gotten off to a fast start. As of the end of this March, Harvard had raised $3.8 billion across all of its schools.
Julio Frenk, the dean of the School of Public Health, said last week that the money from Morningside will touch all areas of the school’s operations. He focused on four particular threats to public health, including pandemics like Ebola, environmental concerns such as pollution, humanitarian issues like poverty and collateral damage from war and violence, and inefficient systems of healthcare.
“[The Chan family’s] generosity will ensure we have the resources to continue to develop the most innovative solutions that will enable millions of people to live longer and healthier lives, now and in the future,” Frenk said.
Frenk said that the money will also fund the school’s continuing commitments to student accessibility and faculty development. He added that the school is considering introducing a series of research awards and grants, as well as new funding for non-tenured faculty to take sabbatical semesters, new support for big data computing and management, and a student loan forgiveness program.
“Student debt is my number one priority, as it has always been,” Frenk said.
University officials told The Crimson last week that, for a smaller institution like the School of Public Health, the Chan gift has the power to alter the school’s trajectory. The School of Public Health, which often sends graduates into less lucrative careers than some other Harvard schools, has traditionally had difficulty matching the fundraising clout of the College, Law School, and Business School. The school draws significantly from federal and non-federal sponsorship—sources that fluctuate and are often referred to as ‘soft money’—which together made up 70 percent of its budget in fiscal year 2013.
“We are very grateful that this school, with its strong public service mission, is going to have this kind of funding and support,” University President Drew G. Faust said in an interview. “The School of Public Health is so dependent on federal funding and soft money for such a substantial portion of its operating budget. It’s great to have some solid foundation apart from those soft money resources that we can depend on.”
Last year, the School of Public Health set a goal of $450 million for its portion of the Harvard Campaign at a ceremony also celebrating the school’s centennial. Frenk would not say if he plans to adjust the $450 million target, but he did commit to continuing the school’s fundraising campaign for the next four years.
—Check thecrimson.com for updates.
—Staff Writers Amna H. Hashmi and Christine Y. Cahill contributed to the reporting of this story
—Staff writer Matthew Q. Clarida can be reached at matthew.clarida@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattClarida.
一早黃武雄老師在line分享的一則故事....
黃老師:容我貼文如次。值得大家花兩分鐘讀讀：
有這樣一個故事，1935年的冬天，是美國經濟大蕭條的一段日子。這天，在紐約市一個窮人居住區內的法庭上，正在開庭審理著一個案子。站在被告席上的是一個年近六旬的老太太。她衣衫破舊，滿面愁容。愁苦中更多的是羞愧的神情。她因偷盜麵包房裡的麵包被麵包房的老闆告上了法庭。
法官審問道：「被告，妳確實偷了麵包房的麵包嗎？」
老太太低著頭，囁嚅地回答：「是的，法官大人，我確實偷了。」
法官又問：「妳偷麵包的動機是什麼，是因為饑餓嗎？」
「是的。」老太太抬起頭，兩眼看著法官，說道：「我是饑餓，但我更需要麵包來餵養我那三個失去父母的孫子，他們已經幾天沒吃東西了。我不能眼睜睜看著他們餓死。他們還是一些小孩子呀。」
聽了老太太的話，旁聽席上響起嘰嘰喳喳的低聲議論。
法官敲了一下木槌，嚴肅地說道：「肅靜。下面宣佈判決！」說著，法官把臉轉向老太太，「被告，我必須秉公辦事，執行法律。妳有兩種選擇，一種是處以10美元的罰金，或者是10天的拘役。」
老太太一臉痛苦和悔過的表情，她面對法官，為難地說：「法官大人，我犯了法，願意接受處罰。如果我有10美元，我就不會去偷麵包。我願意拘役10天，可我那三個小孫子誰來照顧呢？」
這時候，從旁聽席上站起一個四十多歲的男人，他向老太太鞠了一躬，說道：「請妳接受10美元的判決。」說著，他轉身面向旁聽席上的其他人，掏出10美元，摘下帽子放進去，說：「各位，我是現任紐約市市長拉瓜地亞，現在，請諸位每人交50美分的罰金，這是為我們的冷漠付費，以處罰我們生活在一個要老祖母去偷麵包來餵養孫子的城市。」
法庭上，所有的人都驚訝了，都瞪大了眼睛望著市長拉瓜地亞。法庭上頓時靜得地上掉根針都聽得到。片刻，所有的旁聽者都默默起立，每個人都認真地拿出了50美分，放到市長的帽子裡，連法官也不例外。
按理說，一個老婦人偷竊麵包被罰款，與外人何干？拉瓜地亞說得明白——為我們的冷漠付費。他告訴我們，人和人之間並非孤立無關的，人來到這世間，作為社會的動物，是訂有契約的：物質利益的來往，有法律的契約；行為生活的交往，有精神的契約。
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