February 7, 2010 | Read Time: 1 minute
How much: $60-million bequest
Who gave it: Henry C. Woods Jr., an English teacher, and his wife, Janie. Mr. Woods’s family founded the Sahara Coal Company, in Chicago, which is now an investment holding group. He died in 2005, and his wife died two years later.
Who got it: The Lawrenceville School, a private high school in New Jersey. Mr. Woods graduated from the school in 1940, taught English there from 1952 to 1986, and was a member of its Board of Trustees.
Purpose: Mary Kate Barnes, the school’s director of alumni and development, says Mr. Woods placed no restrictions on how the money would be used. Lawrenceville will use the money to endow facilities, pay for faculty salaries, and provide scholarships to needy students.
Previous giving to the school: The couple previously donated $10-million to help the school’s museum buy artwork and to finance a campus day care center and other facilities. The money also went to pay faculty salaries, start a camp for needy children, and support student prizes.
How the gift came about: Before his death, Mr. Woods told school officials that he would leave Lawrenceville Sahara company shares. Most people were unaware of how wealthy the couple was, and until the sale of the shares was completed at the end of December, the school did not know how much it would receive. Ms. Barnes says the couple had deep ties to the school beyond Mr. Woods’s affiliation: “Henry and Janie didn’t have children. Lawrenceville was their family.”
