Vanderbilt to Get $340 Million in Firm’s Stock
Vanderbilt University was promised at least $340 million worth of Ingram Micro Inc. stock Monday, one of the largest gifts ever given to an American college.
Ingram Charitable Fund, based in Nashville, donated 8 million shares--nearly 6% of the Santa Ana computer distributor--to be used for a wide range of university programs.
“This gift is of incalculable importance to Vanderbilt,” Chancellor Joe B. Wyatt said. “It is unprecedented in size, and stands alongside Cornelius Vanderbilt’s founding gift 125 years ago as a singular landmark in the history of this university.”
Cornelius Vanderbilt gave $1 million to build and endow the university.
The fund released 2 million shares of Ingram, which closed Monday at $42.50 a share, to the university and kept 6 million shares in trust.
The Ingram Charitable Fund was created by Martha and E. Bronson Ingram; he attended Vanderbilt and was president of its Board of Trust from 1991 until his death in 1995. The fund was created with 20 million shares, with the requirement that at least 40% of the money be given to Vanderbilt.
Martha Ingram, a trustee, said her husband’s “long-term vision, talent, hard work and love of Vanderbilt led him to create this special fund.” Three of the couple’s four children graduated from Vanderbilt.
According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, the only larger donation to a school was made by Sir Harold Acton in 1994 to New York University. That gift was a 57-acre Italian estate, an art collection and other items valued at as much as $500 million.
Ingram Micro is the world’s largest wholesale distributor of technology products and services, mainly computer goods. Until 1996, it was part of Nashville-based Ingram Industries. Martha Ingram runs the privately held Ingram Industries, which is involved with barge transportation, insurance and the manufacturing of oil and gas industrial equipment.
Vanderbilt, a private research university with 10,000 students, had a $1.5-billion endowment prior to the gift.
