Alumnus donates $10 million to Wentworth Institute

September 29, 2008 04:08 PM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

By Peter Schworm, Globe Staff

Wentworth Institute of Technology today announced that it had received the largest gift in its history, a $10 million donation from a 1951 graduate that will help build a new student center on the Fenway campus.

William H. Flanagan, a philanthropist who founded a Connecticut technology manufacturer in 1961, made the donation, which far exceeds the college's previous largest gift of $1.4 million.

"Bill Flanagan's extraordinary generosity will play an invaluable role in the further development of our campus, benefiting the college educational experience for many generations of students to come and all other members of the Wentworth community," Wentworth president Zorica Pantić said in a statement.

The college will name the student center after Flanagan, who donated the money as a charitable gift annuity and will receive an annual payment from the college for the rest of his life. The college has about 3,600 students.

Building a new campus center is part of the college's long-range development plan, and campus officials have not determined a timetable for construction. The center will serve as a hub for student life and will help the college recruit and retain students, officials said.

Flanagan, 81, credited his Wentworth education for his later professional success.

"If I had not gone to Wentworth, I would not have had the money to give," he said. "Wentworth deserves it, and I am thankful that I could make this gift to the Institute, which continues to provide a strong, practical education for students."

Flanagan said his fondest memory of his Wentworth years was making parts for his race car in a machine laboratory.

In 1961, Flanagan founded Nexus Inc., a designer and manufacturer of communications connectors such as audio plugs, jacks, and push-button switches that have become the standard in military headsets and intercoms. Last year, he sold the Stamford, Conn.-based company, which now operates as Amphenol Nexus Technologies.