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Investor Gives $25 Million To Harvard Divinity School

Harvard Divinity School has received a $25 million donation to renovate its main campus building.

Investor James R. Swartz, who graduated from Harvard College in 1964, and his wife, impressionist painter and philanthropist Susan S. Swartz, donated the money, the largest gift the nondenominational graduate school of theology has received since it was founded in 1816, according to The Harvard Crimson, the college’s student newspaper.

Mrs. Swartz serves on the school’s dean council.

Patricia M. Byrne, executive dean of the Divinity School, said Andover Hall needs new gathering spaces for students. School officials also want to update multimedia facilities and increase energy efficiency.

Hannah Peters, associate dean for development and external relations at the Divinity School, said the 1911 building’s infrastructure is out of date.

“It was designed as a Protestant seminary in the early 1900s. It is 2018 and the school has a very different mission now,” Peters told the Crimson.

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