A Gift from the Heart

Ask Roger M. Lynch '63, P'95 about Fairfield's $100 million Capital Campaign, and one hears many reasoned responses about the need to update aging buildings, boost endowment to attract the best faculty and students, and invest in athletics to give the institution a higher profile.

Such considerations weighed heavily in his and wife Nancy's decision to make a $1 million gift to the Campaign, as did his feeling that as chairman of the Board of Trustees he should "step up to the plate and lead by example." But another, more subtle factor was at work and still drives Lynch's devotion to his alma mater.

"Whenever I come to campus, I always drive up the hill by Bellarmine Pond and get goosebumps. To me, that says it all," says Lynch. "The success of this Campaign will change Fairfield University forever. It will be a completely different institution."

Indeed, as one passes the calm realm of the ducks and crests the hill, Fairfield's potential unfolds in a cacophony of building activity. To the left is the recently acquired and newly named Charles F. Dolan School of Business, and to the right the 60,000-square-foot addition to what will become the DiMenna-Nyselius Library. Past the Egan Chapel of St. Ignatius Loyola, the winter sun glistens off the steel framework of a major addition to the soon-to-be-renovated Barone Campus Center, and just beyond, excavation work has made way for a significant expansion to the Bannow Science Center.

It's this sense of possibility, of "Our Promise," that fuels Lynch's excitement, and it's a feeling he hopes to convey to others contemplating gifts to the Campaign -- the most ambitious in Fairfield's 58-year history. As Board chairman, Lynch played a key role in the University's decision to raise the fundraising bar to the $100 million level.

"It soon became clear that while the annual fundraising success of the University had been steadily increasing, the only way to realize our goals would be to conduct a comprehensive capital campaign," Lynch said at the Campaign kickoff dinner in September.

Lynch, retired partner with Goldman, Sachs & Co., sees a sharp contrast between the Fairfield of today and that of his undergraduate days. He recalls a small, Jesuit college that opened up new social and academic worlds to him, but which lacked an active alumni base and was not well known. As Lynch went about building a successful career in the investment business, he lost contact with the University. Then, in 1986, he attended a President's Circle dinner on campus and was bowled over by the changes that had taken place during the intervening years.

"I was so impressed with the event that before the evening was out, I told Fr. Kelley, 'I'll be far more generous this year than I was last year.' Everything was first class, I saw the potential of the place, and I liked the people," says Lynch. "I walk up there today, and I know almost everybody's name."

Lynch, whose gift will support the endowment fund, increased his involvement with the University in 1987 upon his retirement from Goldman. He was named to Fairfield's Board of Trustees in 1988 and has served as its chairman for the past four years. He also serves on the executive committee for the Campaign and as co-chair of the Major Gifts Committee.

Around the time Lynch joined the Board, he and Nancy endowed a scholarship for the business school. The couple has three adult children, one of whom, Stephen, graduated from Fairfield in 1995 as a communications major.

Looking back on his own years at Fairfield, Lynch recalls that the school helped him find himself academically. "I came within a whisker of getting thrown out my first year," he says. The New Rochelle, New York, native is one of nine children, all of whom went to college. All seven boys attended Iona Preparatory School, an Irish Christian Brothers academy in New Rochelle. It was a time when most students had little say in where they went to college, but Lynch says his parents' decision to send him to Fairfield proved fortuitous.

"It was such a fertile environment to develop as a young man, with the guidance of the Jesuits and their ethical approach to life," says Lynch. "Then, after college, I just worked very hard."

But a funny thing happened. As Lynch's pride in the University grew, he became increasingly frustrated that its reputation was not keeping pace with the positive changes taking place. He notes that he, like many Fairfield alumni, struggled with an "identity crisis" that he hopes future graduates will find hard to fathom. Lynch recalls a recent evening at his Greenwich home as an example of his frustration. He was entertaining an alumni leader from Harvard Business School when the conversation turned to the seemingly innocuous subject of athletics. The man asked if Fairfield played Division I athletics. When Lynch said that, yes, Fairfield plays Harvard, Lynch's guest replied, "Oh, really?"

Lynch stewed about it overnight, then spent some time on the Internet researching Fairfield's athletic and academic accomplishments. He learned that the Fairfield soccer and lacrosse teams had recently beaten Harvard, and that the women's volleyball schedule included Princeton, Brown, and Yale. He even looked up the results of a major debating contest he remembered reading about and learned that Fairfield had placed ninth, beating such teams as Harvard, Cornell and Amherst.

"I put it in a package and sent it off to him," says Lynch, chuckling with satisfaction.

Lynch nevertheless emphasizes that he understands how difficult it is for people with an affinity for Fairfield to increase their level of giving. He remembers "gulping" when Fr. Kelley made his request for $1 million, feeling prepared to give only about half that amount.

"For me and Nancy, our gift is a stretch commitment," says Lynch. And he hopes that others will make a stretch as well because, as he says, "at Fairfield, every gift is hugely important and has an instant impact."