Word: gordons
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Albert H. Gordon '23 may be getting on in years, but he's still young enough to carry on a 50-year-plus-old love affair. As a concrete expression of his devotion to the object of his affections, he has showered her with untold millions of dollars over the last half-century and has never waned in faithfulness. Albert Gordon is in love with Harvard. And now that his mistress has come calling again, Albert Gordon is waiting with open arms...
...more accurately, an open checkbook. One of the most beneficent Harvard contributors of his time, Gordon (along with other well-to-do alumni) is again gearing up to catalyze the University's most ambitious fund drive to date, an effort slated to rake in $250 million by mid-1984. Although Gordon's check will probably surpass many others, it pales in comparison to his other contribution: his influence on other wealthy Harvard alumni, corporations, and foundations. Now that inflation has become the scapegoat for almost every ill, the University is calling on men like Gordon to persuade the nation that...
Alumni like Gordon play the role of the ten-pin in this game of financial persuasion. Their work began during last fall's Campaign kickoff, when fund drive officials commissioned a dozen Harvard grads, all New York City businessmen, to meet and brain-storm about possible sources of Big Bucks. William S. Olney '46, director of corporations and foundations in the development office, says this conclave of presidents, board chairmen, and directors tries to woo potential munificent givers by convincing them that by helping Harvard (to distort the old saying), they'll be helping themselves: "Say they approach a major...
...Gordon, who is one of the national co-chairmen of the Campaign, was one of those polled. "I think there's a tendency for people to want to nourish their roots," he explains. "One has followed the institution to which one went and therefore is more inclined to give to it than to, say, Columbia, which--even though I might think it's a great institution--I have no connections with." Viewing the University as a "full-service institution--in business terms," Gordon believes that almost any alumnus can find a cause he'd like to fund. An avid supporter...
...what of John D. Harvardgraduate, the middle-income suburbanite who can't afford to donate an indoor tennis court? Gordon believes the Campaign must reach those alumni as well. The $35 gifts add up, he says, noting, "Who knows? Someone giving $100, S50, etc. may be in the big time in 40 years." And he is confident that Harvard can win over the hearts--and wallets--of its alumni. As for those who don't share his lifelong adoration of Veritas, well, he believes that the appeal will reach them, too, largely because the solicitation techniques radiate sophistication and reflect...