Jordan Gives $5 Million for Scholarship Fund

When Gerald R. (Jerry) Jordan Jr. '61, MBA '67, first began pondering his role in the $2.1 billion University Campaign, he knew he wanted to make an impact -- both now and in the future. After considering several options, he chose to endow a scholarship fund in his family's name with a $5 million gift, ensuring that up to 16 students per year who need financial aid will be able to attend Harvard.

Announcing the establishment of the Jordan Family Scholarship Fund, Jeremy R. Knowles, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, said, "Jerry Jordan has set a magnificent example by his generous endowment of financial aid. The Jordan fund will help us to maintain our unambiguous policy of need-blind admission, that critical 'lever' that helps to bring the best students to Harvard College."

"Strengthening our programs of student financial aid is one of the main priorities of the campaign, and Jerry Jordan's gift is an inspiring statement about the importance of keeping Harvard's doors open to the most talented and promising undergraduates, whatever their financial means," said President Neil L. Rudenstine. "We are deeply grateful."

According to Jordan, endowing financial aid was a perfect fit in terms of what he wanted to do for Harvard and the campaign: "This fund should last forever, even outliving some of the bricks and mortar. In the year 2700, it should still be there, functioning as an important piece of the endowment pie. It's gratifying to realize that this 'investment' will serve to educate many thousands of Harvard students through the next millennium and beyond." Jordan also liked the idea, and the symmetry, of giving to financial aid because of his own background as a scholarship student: "Somebody helped me to go to Harvard, and I would like to give something back. It's nice to know that I'm doing the same for others."

From Revere to Harvard

Jerry Jordan came to Harvard from Revere, which is only a few miles from Cambridge geographically, but rather far in many other ways. One of Harvard's great gifts was that it opened up the world to him: "I had been south of Boston only once in my life before coming to Harvard," he recalls, "and that was when my dad drove the family to New York City for a weekend." Jordan's father also exerted a powerful influence in getting him to go to Harvard. "My dad had been a good high school football player, and was offered a scholarship to Holy Cross, but growing up during the Depression, his family needed him to go to work, not college." Jordan's father always regretted not attending college, and urged his son to aspire to attend Harvard.

As valedictorian of his high school class and captain of the football and basketball teams, Jordan never doubted that he had a good shot at getting into a strong school, but he was nevertheless thrilled when he was admitted to the College. "Harvard was always in the back of my mind," he says, "but since no one in my family had ever gone to college, I wasn't really sure until I received the acceptance letter."

There was only one hitch -- he was accepted at M.I.T. as well. And as luck would have it, financial aid helped to make the difference. With the help of a Naval ROTC scholarship and additional aid from Harvard, Jordan was free to focus on his studies and athletics at Harvard with relatively few financial concerns. Outgoing Vice President for Alumni Affairs and Development Fred L. Glimp '50, PhD '64, was Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid around the time that Jerry Jordan came to Harvard: "It was great to see someone with Jerry's talent knowing he would be able to attend the College, and it's also terrific to see him stepping up to play that role for others today."

The transition from high school to the College wasn't all that easy for the budding financier. Academically, "it was difficult at first," says Jordan today, noting that he initially trailed many of his classmates in his preparation. Jordan found himself academically as a history concentrator, a field in which he did well, even while carrying a full extracurricular load and playing varsity football.

Today, Jordan looks back on his time at Harvard as a "tremendously important part of my life." Sharing a perspective common to many alumni, he says that it wasn't only the professors, courses, or papers that made his four years unique but also his peers. "Each of my classmates had something special to contribute. This enhanced my Harvard experience, although I did not realize it until much later."

Based on his own experience, Jordan believes strongly that students shouldn't worry too much about their fields of concentration, or their careers, unless they are very clearly focused on an area such as law or medicine. Instead, they should take courses in areas that interest them, regardless of the impact on their future job prospects. "Harvard gives you a chance to share who you are in a way that very few people experience before or after the undergraduate years."

Jordan's singling out of the importance of student interaction in the College coincides with his focus on financial aid as a donor, and his concern with maintaining need-blind admission, so critical in creating the peer groups that made such a difference in his time, and do so today.

Beyond the Yard

Just as it was always in the back of his mind to go to Harvard, investing in the stock market has always been a goal of Jerry Jordan's, even during his days as an undergraduate history concentrator in Winthrop House.

After a four-year stint in the Navy, Jordan went to the Harvard Business School, and then to work at Putnam Management Co. Co-founder and now president of Hellman, Jordan Management Co., a Boston-based financial management firm with some $2 billion in client assets, Jordan includes in his management team six Harvard graduates.

Jerry Jordan may have been the first person in his family to go to college, or to Harvard, but it's already established that he won't be the last. His son Gerald R. Jordan '89, MBA '94, also runs a small investment management company and has been deeply involved in the creation and administration of the family scholarship fund. His second son, Reid C. Jordan '96, graduates this year.

Getting the word out to alumni

Jerry Jordan is so enthusiastic about what he has done that he now urges classmates and other alumni to consider supporting financial aid as well. "Most of them are unaware of the incredible impact of endowing financial aid," he says. He is intent on sending this message to alumni with the capacity to make a difference. "This endowment gift lasts essentially forever. The fact that it's for financial aid means that it has a direct impact on what makes Harvard special -- the admission of highly talented young people without regard to their ability to pay."

Jordan hopes to see Harvard come close to his vision of financial aid being completely endowed, thereby guaranteeing need-blind admission. While recognizing that his is a distant dream, he notes that when more people follow his lead, it will become more of a reality.

As for the future, Jordan says that he expects to continue supporting Harvard, and wants other alumni to grasp, as he has, the pleasure of giving: "Rather than saying, 'I guess I should give, so I will,' I gladly give because I'm delighted at the opportunity to repay Harvard for all it has given to me."