Harvard gets record $350M donation

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 Harvard just landed a record $350 million pledge from a wealthy Hong Kong family.

The pledge from the Morningside Foundation will help support Harvard's School of Public Health, the university said Monday. It will be the largest donation that Harvard has ever received.

The foundation is the charitable arm of the Morningside Group, a private equity and venture capital firm run by the descendants of T.H. Chan, who founded one of the largest real estate firms in Hong Kong during the 1960s, including Gerald and Ronnie Chan.

Gerald Chan, who earned a masters degree from the School of Public Health in the 1970s, said the gift will help students and policymakers "improve human health throughout the world."

 

Speaking at a press conference, Gerald Chan described how his mother, a registered nurse, would vaccinate neighborhood children against Cholera in the kitchen of his family's Hong Kong home during the 1950s. He also told of how his father helped pay for young Chinese students go abroad for education.

 

"These actions were powerful examples," he said. "It is therefore most fitting that a school should be part of his legacy."

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