William Hayes C’60 began to think about estate planning last year, and Drew came quickly to mind. Hayes recalled the late Professor Robert Smith C’36, founding chair of the political science department and a mentor to a legion of students. He bequeathed $1 million to support the Robert G. Smith Scholarship, which provides full tuition to incoming students.
“I really respected him,” Hayes says. “We called him Prof. That’s what he wanted to be called.”
Hayes later earned a master’s degree in political science from Duke University and then embarked on a long career in the insurance industry. “When you get a liberal arts education, you’re qualified in so many areas,” he says. “Corporations will train you to do the work they want, but they can’t train you to think.”
Now retired and living in Florida, Hayes and his longtime partner, Ronald Burns, started planning their estate shortly after the Supreme Court upheld gay marriage in June 2015 (they were married three months later).
“Drew was very important to me,” Hayes says. “I really grew up at Drew.”