A generous gift from Rufus W. Lumry III (MBA 1974) will establish a new chair at HBS and support teaching and learning in the field of information technology as it relates to the Internet and entrepreneurial studies at Harvard University. The joint gift to HBS and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) will fund both the Lumry Family Professorship at HBS and the Technology and Entrepreneurship Center in FAS's Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Lumry's gift reflects his professional interests and expertise in technology and business, his longtime service to Harvard, and his desire to "share the blessings that my family has been given." A 1969 graduate of Harvard College, Lumry is president of Acorn Ventures, Inc., in Bellevue, Washington, a firm that provides seed capital, financial engineering, strategic planning, and fundraising support for early-stage companies that have the potential to transform or create new industries. Prior to forming Acorn Ventures, Lumry was EVP and CFO of McCaw Cellular Communications. As one of the founders of McCaw Cellular in 1982, he helped Craig McCaw create the nation's largest cellular mobile phone company, which was sold to AT&T in 1994.

The Lumry Family Professorship will support an outstanding academic leader whose research and teaching are in the field of information technology (IT), particularly the Internet and its application to business. The new chair will become an integral part of the School's IT initiative, which will keep HBS at the forefront in the use of technology to teach management skills and will help support cutting-edge research and course development. The gift will also help facilitate collaboration between the FAS and the Business School.

At HBS, the Lumry Chair incumbent will play an important role in the education of the next generation of business leaders, as students prepare to assume key positions at a time when interest in entrepreneurship and the Internet has reached unprecedented heights at the School.

"I made this gift to honor my father, whose long tradition of philanthropy has always been an inspiration," commented Lumry, a devout Christian who said he is eager to "share our blessings from the Lord with Harvard." The family's ties to Harvard extend back to an ancestor, Calvin Ellis, who graduated in 1846 from Harvard College and later became dean of Harvard Medical School.

Lumry's father, Rufus W. Lumry II, noted, "The original impulse for this gift extends back more than a hundred years and is part of a tradition that I hope will continue to thrive for many years. Going to Harvard encouraged me and other members of my family to think differently about the future. It gave us possibilities, and in making this gift, my son is inspiring that spirit of possibility in others."

Commenting on the gift, Dean Kim B. Clark said, "Rufus Lumry's career personifies the mission of the Harvard Business School to provide students with a transforming educational experience that enables them to make a difference in their companies and in the world. In his professional life, Lumry has achieved that by supplying new and emerging enterprises with the vision, inspiration, and financial support they need to chart new waters. With this extraordinary gift he will now help HBS follow that course, as the Internet and other spectacular advances in information technology bring about a host of challenges and opportunities." The Lumry Family Professorship, Clark added, will contribute greatly to the School's efforts to provide students "with the world's best resources for studying the Internet and other technologies that are changing the ways people do business around the globe."

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