$28 million gift to college by alumnus Rowland Winton Evans
Rowland Winton Evans has committed a generous $28 million gift to Vassar College.
His gift will rename the campus’s Bridge for Laboratory Sciences, support Music Department initiatives, contribute to campus maintenance, and bolster a scholarship.
Evans’s gift is the largest received by the Fearlessly Consequential campaign since its launch in October 2022. He timed the announcement in celebration of his 50th reunion.
Through his gift, Evans is endowing two funds outright: the Rowland W. Evans ’75 Student Lesson Fund, which will subsidize the cost of individual instrument lessons for students, and the Rowland W. Evans ’75 Concert Fund, which will help cover the costs incurred by the Music Department for its annual concert programming.
In addition, Evans is contributing to the Vassar Fund.
The Bridge for Laboratory Sciences will be renamed the Winton Evans Bridge for Laboratory Sciences.
A history major turned jazz musician, the renaming reflects the building’s role as a literal and symbolic bridge between the heart of campus and the Skinner Hall of Music, as well as Evans’s passion to see all students explore their multidisciplinary passions in the liberal arts.
As in both music and science, the dual benefits of persistent process and flexible creativity often produce the most innovative and beautiful solutions.
The remainder of his gift, included in Evans’s estate plans, will establish additional funds and contribute to a third named for his mother, accomplished writer and editor in Washington, D.C., and former Vassar Board of Trustees member Katherine Winton Evans.
The Evans Family Building Maintenance Fund will support the maintenance and renovation of campus buildings, while the Evans Family Faculty Scholarship and Research Fund will support faculty scholarship and research.
Finally, $10.5 million will be added to the Katherine Winton Evans Scholarship Fund, which her mother had established during her lifetime and supplemented with an additional $5 million from her estate gift.
“Rowland’s historic gift marks a milestone in the Fearlessly Consequential campaign,” Tim Kane, Vassar’s Vice President of Advancement, said. “His exceptional generosity speaks to the enduring power of a Vassar education and the profound strength of our community.
This extraordinary gift will enrich our music offerings, expand student financial aid, advance faculty scholarship, and strengthen campus infrastructure, leaving a lasting legacy for generations to come.”
Fearlessly Consequential: A Campaign for Our Collective Future is a five-year, $500 million capital campaign—the largest in the college’s history.
The campaign will help support Vassar’s role as a leader in the liberal arts by raising funds to ensure that the next generation can access the educational resources needed to contribute meaningfully to the world.
Founded in 1861 and based in Poughkeepsie, Vassar is renowned for its pioneering achievements in education, its long history of curricular innovation, and the beauty of its campus, located just 85 miles north of New York City. Originally founded to provide women an education equal to that once available only to men, Vassar became coeducational in 1969.