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Chatham gets unexpected windfall from class of '31 alumna Retired social worker leaves $3 million to college Thursday, September 30, 1999 By Milan Simonich, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Deep in the Great Depression, Elizabeth Jenkins picked up her brand-new Chatham College diploma and headed to New York City, never to be heard from again.
But Jenkins must have loved Chatham. She has left her life savings of $3 million to the liberal arts college in Squirrel Hill.
The unexpected gift will enable Chatham to announce today that it is increasing the goal of its three-year fund-raising campaign to $25 million. The original target was $21 million.
Jenkins had no contact with Chatham after she graduated in 1931, at least not that anyone on campus can remember. "This was totally out of the blue," college spokeswoman Sharon Talarico said yesterday.
Jenkins' life is something of a mystery, though the record that can be found shows she had an amazing work ethic.
She became a medical social worker after leaving Chatham and later married a New York City hospital administrator named Harry DeWitt Munn. He died in 1965.
Apparently all alone, she worked until age 72, holding jobs for the city of New York and the American Association to Prevent Blindness. She also worked at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, the Hospital for Special Surgery and the Veterans Administration Rehabilitation Program, all in New York.
Jenkins Munn died in October 1997 in Neptune, N.J., at age 87. A small obituary published in New Jersey newspapers said she had no known survivors. She had made her home in Avon, N.J., for 51 years.
Her estate took no time to sort out. She left everything to Chatham.
College executives have determined that the total was $3 million -- the largest bequest in Chatham's 130-year history.
Her gift will be used to create the Elizabeth Jenkins Munn Scholarship Fund. The endowed program will help educate Chatham women in perpetuity.
Chatham is the only college in Western Pennsylvania that awards undergraduate degrees solely to women.
Jenkins Munn also attended Columbia University, receiving a master's degree in social work from that school. Why she decided to channel all her wealth to Chatham was not explained in the will, though the obvious speculation is that she was a Pittsburgh native and the college put her on a path to success.
Jenkins Munn wrote out her will in September 1973, nine years before she retired. She never changed it. If anybody at Chatham knew of her intent, she never revealed it.
The donation from Jenkins Munn was one of a handful of six- and seven-figure donations received as the fund-raising campaign ended its first year. A total of $16.8 million -- or two-thirds of the newly established goal -- has been raised.
Chatham is calling its campaign "Keep the Vision Splendid."
The Kresge Foundation has offered Chatham an $800,000 challenge grant. To secure the money, the college must raise an additional $1.2 million toward a science complex and other campus renovations before June 30, 2000.
In addition, the late Paul Mellon bequeathed $1 million to the college. Mellon's gift will be used to maintain the A.W. Mellon Center, his boyhood home, which he donated to the college in 1940.
"We are able to initiate new programs, launch construction and renovation projects, and provide excellent financial aid to our students because of this support," said Chatham President Esther Barazzone.
Much of the credit goes to Elizabeth Jenkins Munn, who remembered her college long after those on campus had forgotten her name.
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