More from Haverford: Advice on Giving from a Financial Titan and a Class on “Madness”

I have so much fun with every assignment I get for Haverford College’s website and alumni magazine.

At the end of October, I was there when Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick talked about how Haverford’s generosity to him when he was a student in crisis changed the course of his life and the lives of generations of Haverford students that have followed. Haverford gave Lutnick, ’83, a full scholarship when his father died during his freshman year, leaving him and his siblings orphans. Lutnick has donated $65 million to Haverford since his graduation, making him the college’s biggest donor of all time. That’s quite a ROI.

A few weeks ago, I was in the Special Collections section of Haverford’s library writing about Professor Darin Hayton’s class called “Madness”. They were sharing their findings using primary sources from the country’s first Quaker-run mental hospital. I could have spent all day flipping through those documents. Really fascinating stuff.

As I told a friend at lunch recently, “Even when I complain about all the work involved with being a freelance writer, I can’t imagine doing anything else. It’s so interesting.”