The United States is liberally dotted with colleges and universities founded by men and women who made their fortunes there, some of them through less than savory means. Other schools, Duke University for example, were renamed out of respect for major benefactors. In the case of Duke, one of the nation’s leading cancer research centers is somewhat ironically situated at a university liberally endowed from a fortune derived largely from tobacco.
The men and women who opted to create institutions of higher learning did so for differing reasons, including religious, political, and societal motivations. The fortunes used to create the endowments for them were made in equally diverse ways. All of the schools listed here were not only endowed by their founders, but found their personality enmeshed in their philosophy of education. Some remain highly specialized, and all of them are highly selective as regards admissions. They are examples of the desire to build a better America long into the future.
