<p>Lawrenceville announced the largest donation in its 200 year history today. The estate of Henry and Janie Woods (they both died within the past few years) donated $60 million to the school. While I was a student there, he was the chairman of the English department and was rumored to be paid $1/year. I can see why!</p>
<p>There's still time to get those applications in!</p>
<p>WOW! I read the article and the gift is UNrestricted. This school must have meant SO much to them.</p>
<p>That’s great! What’s the total endowment of Lawrenceville now?</p>
<p>According to this NY Times article <a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/07/business/07prep.html[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/07/business/07prep.html</a>
it was $215 millon as of June 30, 2009. It’s unclear if this gift bumps it up by $54 or $60 million ($6 million was part of a earlier campaigns, but I’m not sure if it was counted in the endowment or just the campaigns). It seems likely that there were positive asset returns during the 2nd half of the year also since the S&P was up 22% during that period. </p>
<p>It seems reasonable that the endowment might be close to $300 million by now.</p>
<p>I hope Henry and Janie Woods left their kids something.</p>
<p>I hope Henry and Janie Woods left their kids something.</p>
<p>They didn’t have any.</p>
<p>Here’s an article about the gift from today’s NY Times. [A</a> $60 Million Bequest to New Jersey’s Lawrenceville School - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/16/education/16lawrenceville.html]A”>http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/16/education/16lawrenceville.html)</p>
<p>I’m one of the “810 boys” who receive a Christmas letter every year from Ginnie Chambers.</p>
<p>Just thought I’d share. :)</p>
<p>You are a lucky man, lvillegrad. It’s a wonderful school!</p>
<p>Rest in peace!</p>
<p>Ummm let me be a little selfish</p>
<p>Will this help an int’l FA applicant?</p>
<p>*Rest in peace!</p>
<p>Ummm let me be a little selfish</p>
<p>Will this help an int’l FA applicant? *</p>
<p>Who knows if they’ve factored it into the budget for this year? They certainly had to have known the gift was coming (though nobody was talking about it the night before the announcement when I happened to be on campus for a large alumni event - apparently, they were keeping it fairly quiet).</p>
<p>On the other hand, it certainly can’t hurt.</p>
<p>Does Lville give int’l kids FA? It does have some sort of scholarship, right? What about a fullride? Possible?</p>
<p>I just went to Lawrenceville today. It’s such a happy place. </p>
<p>Actually, they just changed the name of Memorial Hall to Woods Memorial Hall yesterday in honor of those people.</p>
<p>I went to Lville. They have a good amount of financial aid. And yes, it is possible to get a full scholarship to the school.</p>
<p>Very amazing gift. That will provide amazing resources for years to come. Congrats!</p>
<p>That’s excellent! L’ville is already a leader in financial aid, and let’s hope some of this unrestricted gift goes toward strengthening the FA program further!</p>
<p>Additionally, my understanding of prep school endowments is that they are composed of everything from hard cash to bonds to investments in the stock market (which is why when the market suffers endowments suffer), meaning that a school does not just have instant access to the money in their endowments. But I imagine that the school would have instant access to the cash given in a gift, and that would mean the gift would have the potential to make a much bigger impact much more quickly than simply adding value to the endowment would.</p>
<p>A great time for Lawrenceville! A really good friend of mine graduated this year and from what he says it sounds like a really fantastic place.</p>