Billionaire Couple Breaks Record With $480 Million Donation To Northwestern University

EVANSTON, IL — Northwestern University recently received its largest-ever single donation from its biggest-ever donors.

Billionaire couple Pat and Shirley Ryan gave the institution $480 million, which will provide funding for research, education and the redevelopment of Ryan Field, university officials announced Wednesday.

Northwestern President Morty Schapiro said in a statement announcing the donation that he was "immensely grateful" to the Ryan family for their years of generosity and leadership.

“The Ryan Family’s new gift will have a profound and lasting impact on faculty and student opportunities, including research and discovery," Schapiro said. "Additionally, our student-athletes, coaches, fans and the community will benefit from their support of Northwestern Athletics and Recreation for many years to come.”

The record-breaking gift will help fund a series of programs, focusing on health, medicine, economics and business, according to the announcement.

At the university's Feinberg School of Medicine, the donation will help establish the Ryan Family Digital Health Fund, launch a new neuroscience institute and endow the Institute for Global Health. The institute will be renamed after its deputy director Dr. Robert Havey, and the Ryan Family Center for Global Primary Care will be established within it.

“Advancing scientific discovery, especially in human health, has been a longstanding priority for our family,” said Shirley Ryan, a 1961 Northwestern grad. “Northwestern’s world-class scientists and innovative and interdisciplinary approach to research have tremendous potential to advance treatments and tools that can improve the lives of people in the U.S. and globally.”

The money will also endow a Center for Applied Microeconomics and provide "major support" for the Kellogg School of Management, the business school from which Pat Ryan and two of his sons graduated. Economics has been the most popular major for Northwestern undergraduates for the past 25 years, according to the university.

The Ryans' donation will also serve as the lead gift of a multiyear redevelopment of Ryan Field.

University officials said the project would provide the city with increased revenue and job creation. They promised to be transparent and collaborative with residents, and said they would conduct "listening sessions with community members" before releasing any design concepts or more specific plans.

There is no timeline or estimated project cost for the project, according to a university spokesperson. One of its goals is to exceed the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, and make the stadium more accessible and welcoming to all attendees, according to the announcement of the Ryans' donation.

“Shirley and I believe in the power of sports to develop the whole person — mind, body and soul for all students. This holistic approach prepares Northwestern student-athletes to be the leaders of tomorrow,” said Pat Ryan, a 1959 Northwestern grad. “And as long-time fans of all Wildcat teams, we have seen firsthand how powerful Northwestern Athletics can be in building community.”

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Formerly named Dyche Stadium, the 95-year-old football field was renamed after Ryan in 1997 after he donated about $10 million toward its renovations.

That move by the board, which Pat Ryan chaired at the time, overrode its 1926 resolution that called for the name of former Evanston Mayor William Dyche to remain on the stadium and "any additions thereto and any other stadium which may be erected at any time or place to succeed it," according to a Chicago Tribune report from the time.

David Dyche, grandson of the stadium's original namesake, told the paper that his grandfather, a former Northwestern business manager, had dedicated his life to the university and the stadium had been named in his honor.

"Now somebody appears with money, and money buys names on buildings these days, rather than service or real effort," Dyche told the Tribune in 1997. "It just seems to me, given the intent of the board back in those days, why it seems like old crass commercialism. But then, that's true of all colleges and universities these days. I acknowledge that. It doesn't mean I approve of it."

Pat Ryan, 84, of Winnetka, has a net worth of $7.2 billion as of this week, according to Forbes, which put the total amount of money he and his wife have given to the university at nearly $200 million prior to the latest gift.

That would mean the Ryans have given Northwestern more than two thirds of a billion dollars over the years. Northwestern acknowledged the family was already the largest benefactor in his history before the new donation, but a university spokesperson said the all-time amount of money the couple have contributed "isn't being publicly disclosed."

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The founder of two publicly traded insurance companies — Aon and Ryan Specialty Group — Pat Ryan is also the owner, in partnership with Andy McKenna, of about 20 percent of the Chicago Bears.

Other university buildings that bear the family's name include: Welsh-Ryan Arena, Ryan Fieldhouse, Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Hall and The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Center for the Musical Arts.

According to past reports, Northwestern's previous largest donation was a gift of more than $100 million from Roberta Buffett Elliott, the sister of Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, in 2015. In 2019, Jeff and Laurie Ubben made the largest pledge to financial aid programs with an estate gift of $50 million.