Former baseball chief donates $7 million to Williams College
By Peter Schworm, Globe Staff
Fay Vincent Jr., the former commissioner of Major League Baseball, has donated $7 million for undergraduate scholarships to Williams College, where he was a scholarship student in the late 1950s.
In announcing the gift today, Williams College said the gift would also fund a new graduate fellowship named for long-time college administrator and alumnus Henry N. Flynt Jr. of Williamstown.
"This remarkable gift will help some of our best students achieve their educational dreams beyond graduation, extending their ability to change the world in profoundly positive ways," Williams President Morton Owen Schapiro said in a statement.
Known as the Flynt Fellowship, the scholarship can be used for graduate study anywhere.
"My commitment to undergraduate scholarships is personal and heartfelt," Vincent said in a statement. "Hank Flynt made us proud to be among his group of scholarship students and gave us support in many ways, not just financially. In addition, I hope this graduate fellowship will further enhance Williams' appeal to the best and brightest students."
Flynt ran the college's financial aid operation from 1950-1980 and remained involved with it for year afterward.
Vincent will donate most of the gift after his death, but pledged to provide annual funding for the Flynt Fellowship throughout his lifetime. A former Williams trustee, Vincent lives in Florida and spends summers in Williamstown.
In November, Williams announced it was eliminating loans from its financial aid packages for all students beginning in the fall, the fourth college in the country to do so. Williams costs $45,000 a year without assistance, but more than half of freshmen receive financial aid.
Vincent served as commissioner from 1989-1992.
