Princeton Alumnus Pays Off $100-Million Pledge

A 1958 alumnus of Princeton who pledged $100-million to the university in 1995 has paid off that gift, after having to delay payments due to the Asian economic crisis in the late 1990s, reports The Times, in Trenton, N.J.

Gordon Wu, a construction magnate in Hong Kong, gave his first gift to Princeton in 1981, and has given $118-million in total to the school. His major pledge was the largest gift to Princeton until Peter B. Lewis pledged $101-million in 2006, the Times reports.

Mr. Wu said in 1999 that he was unsure when he would be able to fulfill the last $67-million of his gift, The Wall Street Journal reported at the time. That paper also wrote that the university’s investments in Mr. Wu’s company had lost more than the $33-million he had paid on his pledge at that time, the Times reports.

Mr. Wu, 71, earned a degree in civil engineering, and two of his four children graduated from Princeton. He called his gift, which supported the school’s engineering program, “an investment in great minds.”