In early October, Deerfield alumnus and parent Mr. Rob Hale ’84 and his wife Karen pledged $25 million to the school’s financial aid, the largest donation ever to this program.

According to Pam Safford, Dean of Admission and Financial Aid, this donation is not only important to the school now, but also will be instrumental for years to come. “The bigger an endowment you have, the more you are ensured that you will always have a good school, and will be able to offer important programs,” she said. “The beauty of Mr. Hale’s gift is that he is helping to ensure that financial aid will always be available for kids at Deerfield Academy.”

Dr. Curtis praised the donation with great enthusiasm, saying it will help “by bringing talented, motivated, curious, engaged young people to the campus, and that means when we are looking at applications, we are going to try and choose the very best people, not only the ones that have the financial ability to cover the expenses. It is really about merit.”

Mr. Hale, who has helped an average of five to eight students each year with their tuition since 2001, said he was inspired to make this donation based on two factors. “When I went here, it helped shape the rest of my life in a very positive way,” he said. “Deerfield developed the confidence for me that didn’t exist before I got here and that I don’t know would have existed had I not come here. [Secondly]… we do believe that Deerfield has world-class faculty, world-class facilities… but the only thing that it lacks, at times, is diversity. If we can bring more diversity to Deerfield and hope that some of those kids develop the same kind of confidence, then that is the best of both worlds.”