Georgetown announced today that it received its largest philanthropic gift to date, -- an estimated $75 million from the estate of late businessman Robert McDevitt.

Before McDevitt (C’40) died on Sept. 22 at the age of 90, he bequeathed one-third of his estate to establish a fund that would endow faculty positions at Georgetown with particular emphasis on disciplines reflecting his deep Catholic faith, longstanding interest in science and technology and commitment to the university.

“The McDevitts’ generosity supports one of the university’s most critical priorities --securing and strengthening Georgetown’s faculty excellence into the future,” said John J. DeGioia, president of Georgetown University. “I am deeply grateful to the McDevitt family for their recognition of the important teaching, research and scholarship conducted by our faculty. I am particularly moved that this gift supports areas of personal meaning to them that are so critical to our ongoing efforts to enhance our academic quality and Catholic and Jesuit mission.”

The McDevitt gift will support faculty compensation and the research, technology and staffing infrastructure necessary to create and support academic work of national and international distinction.

The Georgetown alumnus owned and operated McDevitt Brothers Funeral Home, a family business started by his grandfather in Binghamton, N.Y, where he was born, raised and spent his last days. In addition to applying his business acumen to the success of the mortuary business, McDevitt was a longtime investor in IBM, which traces its roots since the early 1900s to the village of Endicott -- part of the greater Binghamton area.

McDevitt’s mother, Mary, worked as secretary to A. Ward Ford, president of the Computing-Tabulating- Recording Company, IBM’s predecessor. McDevitt had shared with Georgetown leaders some years ago that his mother was one of the company’s original employees. She worked at the company from 1895 to 1905, and during that time,  she borrowed $125 to buy stock. McDevitt inherited those original shares that are still part of his portfolio of IBM stock. The majority of his Georgetown gift will come from IBM stock.

McDevitt was the last survivor of his estate; His wife, Catherine, passed away in April. The couple’s Catholic faith led both to become members of the Pontifical Order of St. Gregory the Great, where he was designated a knight and she a dame within the order.

Brian McDermott, S.J., member of Georgetown’s board of directors, met the McDevitts’ several times when McDermott served on Georgetown’s faculty and as rector of the Jesuit Community.

He described the couple as “a man and woman of deep faith with a keen interest in the larger world.

“Robert and Catherine were deeply devoted to the Church and to the work it could do to impact the world,” McDermott said. “This gift to Georgetown exemplifies their legacy by recognizing the important ongoing contributions that scholars can have in helping to bring meaning to some of the most critical issues of our time.”

Prior to the McDevitt gift, the largest one received by Georgetown was in the amount of $30 million from the late Robert Emmett McDonough to the business school. Today the business school carries the McDonough name. The California businessman was a 1947 graduate of Georgetown’s Walsh School of Foreign Service.

-- Julie Green Bataille

(December 10, 2008)