University officials announced on Dec. 10 that Robert McDevitt (CAS ’40) has given Georgetown approximately $75 million, the largest gift in the university’s history.

cDevitt, who passed away Sept. 22 at 90 years old, owned McDevitt Brothers Funeral Home in Binghamton, N.Y. According to the university press release, McDevitt and his family were longtime investors in IBM and the majority of his gift to the university will be in IBM stock.

cDevitt and his wife, Catherine McDevitt, who passed away six months before her husband, asked that the donation reflect their Catholic faith.

“McDevitt directed that a portion of his estate establish a fund to endow faculty positions at Georgetown, with particular emphasis on some disciplines that reflect his deep Catholic faith, longstanding interest in science and technology and commitment to Georgetown University,” the press release states. “The McDevitt gift will support faculty compensation and the research, technology and staffing infrastructure necessary to create and support academic work of national and international distinction.”

Chester Gillis, interim dean of the College and former theology professor, said that McDevitt’s donation emphasizes the enduring effect that Georgetown has on its students.

“This gift underscores the importance of Georgetown in the lives of alumni,” Gillis said. “Mr. McDevitt expressed his gratitude for his Georgetown education and formation nearly 70 years after his graduation.”

University President John J. DeGioia expressed his deepest thanks to the McDevitt family for this gift in the press release.

“I am deeply grateful to the McDevitt family for their recognition of the important teaching, research and scholarship conducted by our faculty,” DeGioia said. “I am particularly moved that this gift supports areas of personal meaning to them that are so critical to our ongoing efforts to enhance our academic quality and Catholic and Jesuit mission.”

“Yes, it will [strengthen Georgetown’s Jesuit identity], but it will also benefit the academic mission of Georgetown across disciplines,” Gillis said. “The McDevitts intended the gift to enhance not only the Catholic identity of Georgetown but also to enhance the academic excellence that will benefit all students at Georgetown.”

University Spokesperson Julie Bataille said this donation is especially welcome during a time of economic hardship.

“Especially given the current economic environment, the generosity of this gift is a welcome recognition of the ongoing need to support and sustain academic excellence,” she said.

Bataille said the university has begun internal planning to determine how to specifically allocate the funds. She added that the McDevitt’s donation has not been specifically allocated at this time.

“Georgetown has not yet used any of the McDevitt funds,” Bataille said, “We are still in the process of receiving the gift and determining the appropriate uses consistent with the donor’s intent.”

Gillis said that a portion of the funds may go to the philosophy and theology departments, but that the university’s Catholic identity could be strengthened in many other areas and by other means as well.

Gillis added that McDevitt’s Catholic identity motivated them to make this donation.

“Mr. and Mrs. McDevitt were members of the Pontifical Order of St. Gregory the Great (he was designated Knight and she a Dame within the order),” he said. “The McDevitts also gave a sizable gift to another Jesuit institution – Le Moyne College in Syracuse. Mr. McDevitt’s cousin, the late Rev. Edward L. McDevitt, S.J., helped establish Le Moyne College’s physics department when that college was founded in 1946.”

The largest donation to the university, prior to McDevitt’s, was $30 million, given by Robert McDonough (SFS ’49) in 1998. Following his donation, the business school was renamed the McDonough School of Business. According to Bataille, there are no current plans to name any physical area on campus after McDevitt.

“