IU South Bend: one trust's decade, and the banker's gift that named a school

1989–2024

The Dwyer Trust: The largest single donor gift in IU South Bend's history came from a fortune made outside the city and given into it. The Vera Z. Dwyer Charitable Trust — the legacy of Vera Dwyer and her husband, founders in 1931 of Dwyer Instruments, and administered by Indiana Trust Wealth Management of Mishawaka — gave 5.85 million dollars in 2015, and the university named its Vera Z. Dwyer College of Health Sciences for the gift. An earlier gift of 1 million dollars had established the Dwyer Scholarship in Healthcare, bringing the combined giving to 6.85 million at the dedication; by 2018 the university's account put the trust's giving since 2014 at 8.75 million dollars, funding scholarships, two endowed chairs and the relocation of the campus Health and Wellness Center into the renamed Vera Z. Dwyer Hall. In April 2022 the trust made a further lead gift of 5 million dollars for the Dwyer Healthcare Simulation Center in Parkside Hall. No other donor stands close to the trust in the campus's record.

The Leighton gift: Before Dwyer, the campus record was the Judd Leighton Foundation's. In 2012 the foundation gave 4 million dollars — then the largest single donor gift in the university's history — supporting scholarships, fellowships, faculty development and two student-success positions, and the business school took the name Judd Leighton School of Business and Economics; the same agreement included a challenge grant of 1 million dollars toward completing the renovation of the Administration Building that houses it. The two gifts stand in the table as announced; together with the Dwyer naming they mark the campus's transformation from a commuter college funded by appropriations into one carried in part by named private fortunes.

The unfigured and the collective: The campus's library bears a fortune's name on a gift whose amount no source reached publishes: Franklin D. Schurz, chairman of Schurz Communications and publisher of the South Bend Tribune, donated the money to complete construction of the Franklin D. Schurz Library, dedicated in June 1989, on the university library's own account. And the campus's largest sum is a campaign, not a gift: IU South Bend raised almost 32 million dollars over eight years in Indiana University's Bicentennial Campaign, as its 2020–21 annual report records — printed here labeled as the collective figure it is.

Sources:

1. Indiana University news releases and IU South Bend foundation accounts (2015; 2018; 8 April 2022) — the Dwyer gifts of 5.85 million and 5 million dollars, the earlier 1 million dollar scholarship gift, and the 8.75 million dollar cumulative account.
2. Indiana University announcement (2012) — the Leighton Foundation's gift of 4 million dollars and the 1 million dollar challenge grant.
3. IU South Bend Library history — Franklin D. Schurz's gift completing the library, dedicated June 1989; IU South Bend Annual Report 2020–21 — the Bicentennial Campaign total of almost 32 million dollars.