News and Events : News 05-06

Northfield Mount Hermon Receives Largest Gift in Its History

June 2, 2006

GILL, MA—A Northfield Mount Hermon School alumnus has donated securities valued at $10 million to the school. David F. Bolger, real estate developer, investment banker, financier, and philanthropist, has asked that his gift be used to endow scholarships, establish a faculty chair, and support an endowment for the school’s Memorial Chapel. This is the largest gift Northfield Mount Hermon (NMH) has received in its 126-year history.

Bolger, a 1950 graduate, is the founder and president of Ridgewood, NJ-based Bolger & Co., Inc. He is the former chairman and sole stockholder of the Farmers & Merchants State Bank in Boise, ID. The son of Dutch immigrants, Bolger was able to attend Northfield Mount Hermon, a private secondary school in western Massachusetts, because of a scholarship. He later worked nights and weekends at a steel mill to put himself through college.

A longtime supporter of NMH, Bolger has donated more than $2 million over the past two decades to a wide range of school projects, including the Bolger Arts Center. He helped underwrite renovations to several campus facilities, and he and a classmate, Richard Gilder, led a class gift of $5 million to renovate Alumni Hall—the school’s dining hall—on the occasion of their 50th reunion. This year Bolger also made a significant gift to support eight students who came to NMH after being displaced by Hurricane Katrina. “‘Stand by me’ was something I learned at NMH and has been the creed of my life,” Bolger said. “I feel it is my responsibility to be supportive and helpful to others in need.” Three of his siblings—William J. Bolger ’44, Betty (Agatha P.) Bolger Fleming ’46, and twin sister Barbara D. Bolger Collett ’50—also attended and have supported the school.

In addition to his gifts to NMH, Bolger has given to many other charitable causes, such as helping children with cerebral palsy and people with mental illness. He was the lead donor for an expanded emergency room and to the pediatric wing of a hospital in his New Jersey town of Ridgewood. He also donated a bus and Land Rover to Project Hope in Haiti and gave a $700,000 interest-free loan to preserve Effigy Mounds, IA.

Thomas K. Sturtevant, head of Northfield Mount Hermon School, said, “David Bolger’s gift is a remarkable gesture of support for what makes NMH important: the people and the spirit of the community. This transformational gift will enable us to increase significantly the number of scholarships offered to talented students in need of financial assistance. By establishing a named chair, he has also provided the means for the school to recognize and support the good work of its faculty. Mr. Bolger is a generous alumnus who has a talent for selecting projects that have had and will continue to have enormous impact on our students and faculty. We are extremely grateful for this very important and generous gift.”

Northfield Mount Hermon in Gill, MA, is an independent coeducational boarding and day school enrolling 660 students in grades nine through 12 and post-graduate. Visit www.nmhschool.org.

CONTACT: Kate Snyder, 413-498-3357, ksnyder@nmhschool.org, or Deborah Holman, 413-498-3376, dholman@nmhschool.org

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