Harvard Class of 1989's record-setting class gift

The twenty-fifth reunion class of 1989 established “an astonishing record” this year with its more than $180-million gift, HAA president Catherine Gellert announced during the organization’s annual meeting on the afternoon of Commencement day. “Let me repeat that,” Gellert told the cheering classmates and others gathered in Tercentenary Theatre: “An astonishing record!” That number includes the unprecedented $150-million contributed earlier this year by Kenneth C. Griffin ’89, primarily for undergraduate financial aid; the gift is the largest in Harvard College history (see “Undergraduate Aid and Campaign Milestones,” May-June, page 27).

In addition, Gellert publicly thanked the fiftieth-reunion class of 1964 for its more than $38-million reunion gift and 50 percent participation rate, and saluted the class of 2014’s 78 percent participation rate.

Overall, alumni have also given to the University in myriad other ways, Gellert emphasized: by volunteering and continuing to volunteer an enormous amount of their time and energy in “a great show of commitment to the community of Harvard and Radcliffe.”