Sam Kim ’84 and Will McLanahan ’83
Sam Kim ’84 and Will McLanahan ’83
Sam Kim ’84 is first-generation Phillips Academy. Not so, Will McLanahan ’83: he followed in the footsteps of his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather when choosing to attend Andover. Yet Kim and McLanahan have their similarities, not the least of which is their philanthropy. Each has gradually increased his gifts to the Academy—first by participating regularly in the Andover Fund at the $1,000 level. Then, in fiscal year 2008, that support reached new heights: each pledged $100,000 to Andover scholarship funds.
McLanahan, a partner in a hedge fund based in Greenwich, Conn., and Kim, whose hedge fund firm is located in Englewood Cliffs, a New Jersey suburb, each say they have reached places in their lives where their capacity to give matches their desire to benefit their alma mater and its future.
“The donation was something that had been in the back of my mind for some time,” says Kim. “I feel like I’ve been blessed by God in a lot of ways in my life, and one was the ability to spend three years at Andover on more or less a full scholarship. I’ve always thought that when the time was right I would like to do that for somebody else.”
Kim committed $100,000 in the form of a term scholarship (i.e., a gift of at least $25,000 per year for three years that is expended over a defined period of time to benefit students chosen directly by the Academy). McLanahan, in contrast, pledged $100,000 to the George X. McLanahan Memorial Scholarship, an endowed fund established years earlier by his family. Unlike a term scholarship donation, an endowed scholarship gift is not spent, rather invested, with generated income supporting PA’s sizable financial aid program.
McLanahan likens the McLanahan Memorial Scholarship to something of a family heirloom. “It reflects my family’s long history and love for the school and will always be a part of its future,” he says. “Hopefully a fifth generation of McLanahans will also be in the school’s future.” He and his wife, Lara, have three children.
The scholarship was established in 1919 by the mother and sister of George Xavier McLanahan, Will’s greatgrandfather, who was a member of Andover’s Class of 1892. George’s son, Duer McLanahan ’15, also attended Andover, as did his son, Duer McLanahan Jr. ’46, for whom the fund was later increased in memoriam.
Ironically, it was the words of more recent Andover students that spurred Kim to increase his support of the school. Two summers ago, he and his wife, Sunwoo, received from Andover a book of speeches in which students described the impact the Academy had had on them—and foreshadowed the impact they would have on the world.
“My wife and I read those and were deeply moved,” says Kim, a father of three. Not long after, he was in touch with PA’s development office, ready to follow through on his longtime intention to support Andover in a substantial way. The Academy’s recent move to needblind admission made his desire all the more resolute.