David Rockefeller gives Harvard $100M

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 25 (UPI) -- David Rockefeller, a member of the class of 1936, has given Harvard $100 million, the largest alumni gift in its history, the U.S. university announced Friday.

Rockefeller's donation will be used to help Harvard undergraduate students study overseas and create three study centers at the Fogg Art Museum, The Boston Globe reported.

Rockefeller is former CEO of Chase Manhattan Bank and a member of the family that founded Standard Oil.

The gift was tailored to his own experience as a student, Rockefeller said in a statement.

"Harvard opened my eyes and my mind to the world," he said. "It was because of Harvard's language requirement that I spent the summer of 1933 in Germany and saw firsthand the ominous rise of fascism. And it was at Harvard that I first studied art history. Harvard provided me with an intellectual framework to understand what I was seeing and experiencing that has stayed with me for my entire life."

Rockefeller previously had given Harvard $40 million, including a $25 million gift that created the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies.