Buffett Facilitates $128 Mil Donation To Quaker High School

New York Times:

It probably would never have happened if Harvard University had not rejected Warren E. Buffett's business school application in 1950. But a string of events originating with Mr. Buffett's disappointment led yesterday to a Quaker high school's receiving a gift that dwarfs some college endowments: $128 million.

Officials at George School, a prep school in Bucks County, Pa., were reeling from the contribution, believed to be one of the largest ever to a secondary school. "All I could say was things like, 'Wow, this is overwhelming,' " said Anne Storch, the school's chief fund-raiser.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[pelham]

02:12 PM on 09/20/2007

if it had been any other school, i would be in complete agreement with the modernleader and bobsmith. and, of course, they are right, there is a lot better things to do with that sum, or any sum, of money. but as an alum of the school, let me say the following in defense of the gift:
- she gave 1/3 of her wealth to the school, i believe the other 2/3's may be going to more worthy causes
- its not REALLY a religious school, its committed to the quaker ideals of peace, non-violence, war resistance, equality, truth and community service, and it does a decent job of instilling these ideals in its students
- the school has an agressive financial aid program and committment to racial and economic diversity (compared to other super-elite boarding schools) so its not just for the privileged (though mostly it is)
- the school was one of the first of its type to admit african-americans, and one such alum is Julian Bond, who went on to become a leader of SNCC when at Morehouse, and is now the chair of the NAACP.
- it was the first school in the US to seek out exchange students from Cuba and Vietnam (when i was there, our basketball team travelled to Cuba to play, and a Cuban team came came to play us)
- the school has scholarships for stutents who demonstrate a commitment to social justice.
- the school is committed to sustainability, and some of the money will go to building sustainable buildings, and reducing reliance on non-renewable energy


In the end its just another elite institution that can afford to talk about such things as justice and sustainability, and market them to limosine liberals, but its not like she gave her money to bob jones university either.

[Earthsaver]

03:02 AM on 09/20/2007

Only in America! Congratulations!

[themodernleader]

01:00 AM on 09/20/2007

In the age of the Robber Barons the Carnegies and Rockfellers took their unwonted wealth earned by monopolistic practices and granted it to public libraries, puplic education and other public entities to educate or otherwise benefit the unwarshed masses.
Not this gang of ostentatious Predator Capitalists. They control the elected officials and clearly own the printing press and Federal Reserve. And what does their Arch Predator, Mr Buffet in the winter of his life, do with his unwonted, undeserved wealth: He gives it to a religious school. What the emerging servant class needs is a firmer mooring in religion and faith and obedience.
In the declining times of an organization, traditional leaders set into motion policies and procedures to weaken and divide the membership. The mission of the organization is changed to benefit the positions and previleges of the few rather than the many.
This generation of venial, unappreciative billionaires spend their wealth on every foreign interest and alien cause except the American people cause. Their omnipresent fear is the fear of an aroused citizentry who taxes their unwonted piles of wealth and redistributes it for the revitalization of the American Republic. Their fear is justified. A revitalized citizentry and servitude are incompatible.
Mr. Buffet, you grew and developed in the American Republican environment of fairness, equitable treatment, and virtually unlimited opportunity. You took advantage of the rights of the Republic through your political relationships and rewritten rules. Now your wealth is being donated to organizations that separate and intellectually encapture, rather than expand opportunity and enlightment to the generality of citizens who have been irreparably harmed by predatory "free enterprise". You should reread the documents governing our democracy, then advocate against the harm you and the others have presented as rapacious models of citizenship. Finally, you should join together with righteous and patriotic Americans to reignite organizational unity, membership learning and growth and development towards a renaissance of American peformance and achievement for ourselves and as examples of self governance for the traditional peoples of the world. Otherwise. your legacy to a fallen Republic will be one of infamy.

[bobsmith]

04:27 AM on 09/20/2007

Interesting post, themodernleader.

My first thought upon reading about the gift was this: If I had $128M to give away, there would be an almost infinite number of recipients who would be higher on the list than "George School"... but I can't think of many who would lower.

Actually, I'd prefer to see mega-wealth of this magnitude simply taxed out of existence, with the proceeds going toward:

-- Covering the bonds in the Social Security Trust Fund so that my children and grandchildren can rest assured that SS retirement benefits will be there for them.
-- Shoring up Medicare for the elderly/disabled
-- Seed money for national, universal, single-payer health care
-- Expanding the availability of decent child care facilities for children of working parents (and paying child care workers a living wage)
-- Alternative, renewable, and clean energy R&D
-- And the list goes on...

No one individual should be able to hold $128M in assets hostage.

[Danny]

06:31 PM on 09/19/2007

I meant a gift of $128 million, and I won't joke about my mistake.

[Danny]

06:30 PM on 09/19/2007

I once taught at George School, a fine school with the smartest kids around, and a Quaker ethic that has stayed with me for life.

Still, $137,000,000 would have done wonders for the survival of the planet, or alleviation of poverty in certain parts of the world ...

How do the Friends feel about the gift?

[askmeificare]

04:50 PM on 09/19/2007

And with his mastery of The Force, is able to hover a yellow ping pong ball in mid air.

[AlP]

03:41 PM on 09/19/2007

THE QUAKERS: THE REAL CHRISTIANS!

They need to be represented more.

[GhostofBillHicks]

01:56 PM on 09/19/2007

Mr. Buffet,proof that you can be wealthy and still be a decent human being.

[ragged]

01:53 PM on 09/19/2007

Perhaps it's because it's not a very important story, but it does seem that the HuffPost editor is having some problems with the headline. Earlier, it was reported that Mr. Buffett made the contribution (he did not). Now it reports the contribution is $137, off by six orders of magnitude (it's actually $128,000,000). Sigh.

[JulieSA]

05:59 PM on 09/19/2007

The HuffPo headline writers are notorious morons. They screw up something almost everyday.

Anyway, it's a nice story about Ms Anderson and her alma mater.

[UncleHorns]

11:52 AM on 09/19/2007

As a George School alum and son of a long time Physics teacher, I'm thrilled at the prospect of what this means for the school. A huge thanks to Barbara Dodd Anderson for her large donation!

[justaguy]

11:35 AM on 09/19/2007

I don't know about you but it seems that $137 isn't all that much for a guy like Warren Buffett. It sounds more like the tab for a decent lunch for him and a couple friends.

Please fix your headline link on your homepage. It looks foolish.

[JaundicedEye]

11:44 AM on 09/19/2007

I agree that $137 seems like a paltry sum to donate. Gosh, even I could afford that. You know how much I think would be an impressive sum? 128 Million!

[ragged]

10:45 AM on 09/19/2007

Mr. Buffett has done a number of wonderful things with his wealth and is a great exemplar. Having received much praise in his life, it's unfortunate that the HuffPost and NYT editors, in writing their headlines, have not given credit to the person who actually made this donation. As the article makes clear, Mr. Buffett neither made nor facilitated Ms. Anderson's donation to George School.

[dadw5boys]

10:44 AM on 09/19/2007

I challenge Warren Buffet to pick up the Solar Engery ball and build Solar Power Plants.
This is the proper use of wealth to help new technology grow and espically now when our country is facing conflict over Oil from the Middle East.
The USA could and should be engery independent by now. We can provide so much electric power that Oil would become a last resort engery solution.

[SmellyOne]

07:32 PM on 09/19/2007

Amen!!!!

[aznurse]

10:44 AM on 09/19/2007

thats a lot of oatmeal