Wesleyan’s longtime board of trustees chair has donated $20 million to the Middletown higher-education institution. It’s the largest donation to Wesleyan’s “This Is Why” fundraising campaign.
Joshua Boger and Amy Boger will be honored for their donation by having a Wesleyan building on the school’s College Row renamed Boger Hall.
Their gifts include
- $11 million to establish the Joshua and Amy Boger Endowed Wesleyan Scholarship Program, which has already benefited more than a dozen Wesleyan students and will provide access to Wesleyan to many more in the coming years;
- $3 million to endow the Joshua Boger University Professor of the Sciences and Mathematics, currently held by Professor of Chemistry David L. Beveridge; and,
- $2 million for the Joshua Boger Endowed Fund for Student Research, which provided lead funding for 50 faculty-mentored student research fellowships in 2015.
Joshua Boger founded Boston-based Vertex Pharmaceuticals in 1989 to, in his own words, “transform the way serious diseases are treated.” Vertex is a member of the S&P 500 and was named by Forbes magazine recently as the 15th most innovative company in the world.
Amy Boger is a professional ceramic artist and owner of Dirt and Light Arts LLC. She is a retired pediatrician and a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
The building at 41 Wyllys Ave., Middletown, is home to the university’s career center, College of Letters, and Paoletti Art History Wing. It will be formally dedicated as Boger Hall in May 2016, as part of the university’s Reunion & Commencement celebration.The ceremony will also mark Joshua Boger’s retirement from the Board of Trustees, on which he has served as a member since 1999 and as chair since 2009.
