Diamond Dinner
Delaware Diamonds Society honors leadership donors
3:34 p.m., April 29, 2014--Generous members of the Delaware Diamonds Society at the Ambassador Level ($10,000) and above convened at Hagley Museum and Soda House on Tuesday, April 8, to celebrate personal philanthropic support of UD and honor the University’s leadership donors from the 2013-14 academic year.
The event was hosted by E. Thomas Harvey, III, who is a member of the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics Class of 1975 and first-ever chair of the Delaware Diamonds Society.
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Harvey expressed his gratitude for the society’s support of UD, which has exceeded $11 million this year.
“We give to more than 700 areas across the University, investing in students, in faculty, and in the fundamental mission to cultivate learning, develop new scholarship, and apply that knowledge to better our collective world,” he said.
After dinner, members were treated to a talk by Jonathan Russ, an associate professor in the Department of History and the University’s Delaware historian who specializes in the histories of the state and modern American business.
Russ discussed the history of American philanthropy with a special focus on the du Pont family. Their support of higher education, in particular, helped establish the University’s endowment and laid the groundwork for the modern University of Delaware, then called Delaware College.
The evening concluded by honoring the Delaware Diamonds Society’s 2013-14 Pacesetter donors. Pacesetters are UD’s transformational donors who contribute $100,000 or more to the University.
The chairman of the UD Board of Trustees, A. Gilchrist Sparks, led this portion of the program and each Pacesetter donor/couple was presented with a unique print commissioned from University alumnus Jeff Chase.
Photos by Evan Krape