HARVARD GAZETTE ARCHIVES

Thomas Lee Gives Harvard $22 Million

A $22 million gift from Thomas H. Lee '65 marks an important milestone in Harvard's first-ever University-wide fundraising campaign. Funds from the gift -- one of the most broad-ranging in Harvard's history -- will be available to support a wide array of academic priorities, not only in the FAS, but across the University.

Lee is offering Harvard's leaders an extraordinary degree of flexibility in how his gift will be used. Of the $22 million, $19 million can be allocated at the discretion of President Neil L. Rudenstine and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Jeremy R. Knowles.

"Tom Lee's gift is extremely important, not only because of its magnitude, but because it gives us the opportunity to direct funds to parts of the University where they can make the most difference," said Rudenstine. "We are deeply grateful to Tom Lee for his remarkable generosity, and for his support of our capacity to act creatively in meeting significant educational needs and new challenges across Harvard. Tom is a true citizen of the University," he added.

"Tom is a princely alumnus and friend, whose support and trust will allow us to shape our future in the best possible way," commented Knowles.

Lee's gift is one of the largest Harvard has received during The University Campaign, and makes him the leading Boston philanthropist: he is believed to be the first citizen of Massachusetts to give a gift of more than $20 million to any of the Commonwealth's nonprofit institutions.

"I have tremendous confidence in both Neil and Jeremy," said Lee. "They are closest to the pulse of Harvard. They know where the financial pressure points are. So, I thought it would be appropriate for them to decide how $19 million could be of the greatest service to the University," Lee said.

He added, "I believe that, in the long run, the gifts that are the most useful for an institution are those with the fewest strings attached." Lee's gift is the largest unrestricted gift to the campaign.

Of the $19 million, half will go to the University Fund, which over time will support a range of academic needs and initiatives across Harvard. The other half will be used to support the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) at the discretion of the FAS Dean. Knowles has decided to allocate it to undergraduate financial aid and support of the life sciences.

Lee has designated the $3 million in nondiscretionary funds as follows: $500,000 to Project Zero, based at the Graduate School of Education; $500,000 to Facing History and Ourselves, also associated with the School of Education; $500,000 each to the American Repertory Theatre and the Fogg Art Museum; and $500,000 each to two medical institutions affiliated with Harvard, Beth Israel Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

FAS receives $9.5m

"How superb to have the help and faith of Tom Lee," said Knowles. "We shall direct these funds to two of the most important areas of the College. Underpinning science is absolutely essential. We will be able to attract talented faculty and to support their work. Further, by increasing his scholarship fund, Tom is supporting our most important campaign priority: ensuring that the best students can come to Harvard, regardless of their means."

Knowles is adding $4 million to the Thomas H. Lee '65 Scholarship Fund, which Lee established in 1985 to help students who overcome physical, social, or economic adversity in achieving the record which earned them admission to Harvard. As his twenty-fifth reunion approached, Lee was inspired by the story of a fellow alumnus's son who suffered many physical handicaps, yet wrestled for Belmont Hill School, and then became a Harvard student.

"One of the most important missions at Harvard is bolstering need-blind admissions. Every qualified applicant -- regardless of money or influence -- should have the chance to pursue a Harvard education," said Lee.

A Dallas native whose parents abandoned her, a Californian whose every possession was lost in the 1989 earthquake, a blind student, and two students whose disabled parents could provide them with no financial help are among the 10 undergraduates who have received financial aid through Lee's fund.

The Lee Scholarship Fund will now provide financial aid for at least 20 undergraduates each year. In line with his conviction about giving institutions flexibility, Lee has decided to broaden the terms of his scholarship fund so that any student in need may receive financial aid from his fund.

Another $5.5 million is allocated to establish a faculty chair in biology/genetics and to establish a dean's fund for biology to support the recruitment of new faculty in this area.

Lee became more interested in genetics as a member of the Dean's Council. "We spent a day hearing faculty describe their research in biology, chemistry, and physics. Then, and in further discussions with Jeremy, I came to realize the importance of the Human Genome Project as the logical extension of the Watson-Crick DNA research. I believe that in the future people will look back at the twentieth century and point to the discovery of DNA and the pursuit of the Human Genome Project as one of the two or three great events of this century."

Investor, collector, philanthropist

President and founder of the private Boston-based Thomas H. Lee Co., Lee is widely regarded as an early pioneer in friendly leveraged acquisitions and recapitalizations. His investment record is, in the words of Harvard Management Co. President and CEO Jack R. Meyer, "tops in the country." Among Lee's more notable purchases are Snapple Beverage Co., Playtex Family Products Inc., First Alert, and General Nutrition Inc.

Lee's interests are as diversified as his investment portfolio and he is an active philanthropist in education, the arts, and medicine, among other areas.

"As soon as I was able, I donated to institutions that meant something to me," said Lee. "These places -- especially Harvard -- have added to my perspective by uplifting me and opening my mind."

Lee's Harvard service includes membership on the Committee on University Resources Campaign Executive Committee, the Visiting Committee to Harvard College, and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Financial Aid Council. He is a former member of the Harvard Club of Boston board of governors. Lee established the Henry Rosovsky Fund at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences in 1984 to support teaching in Harvard College.

Several other Boston-area educational institutions have enlisted his support. He is a member of the corporation at the Belmont Hill School, vice chairman of Brandeis University, and a member of the headmaster's council at Milton Academy.

One of the nation's foremost art collectors, Lee devotes substantial energy to the arts in Boston and New York. He serves as a trustee of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. He is also a trustee of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and the Wang Center for the Performing Arts. Lee serves as an overseer of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the New England Conservatory of Music, where he helped to establish the Thelonius Monk Institute.

Lee's wife, Ann Tenenbaum, a native of Savannah, Ga., shares his enthusiasm for involvement in the arts. In New York City, she is a trustee at the DIA Center for the Arts, advisory committee member at the Bard Center for Curatorial Studies, a trustee of the Film Society of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and is a member of the contemporary painting and sculpture committee as well as the photography committee at the Whitney Museum. Tenenbaum is a dedicated alumnae of Northfield Mount Hermon School and Sarah Lawrence College.

Lee rounds out his leadership of Boston institutions by serving as treasurer (and former vice chairman) of Beth Israel Hospital and vice chairman of the Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston. He is also a trustee at the New York University Medical Center.

A Boston-area native who now lives in Lincoln, Mass., Lee has two sons, Stephen Zachary Lee '94 and Robert Schiff Lee.