Georgetown University Receives $87-million Gift … And Dayton Foundation Does Pretty Well, Too

Georgetown University has announced its receipt of an $87 million gift under a charitable trust created under the will of Harry J. Toulmin.  His widow, Virginia B. Toulmin, a Dayton, Ohio, businesswoman and philanthropist, astutely managed the trust assets after her husband’s death.  According to the Georgetown University website, the late Mr. Toulmin “was an international patent attorney and owner and director of Central Pharmaceuticals.”  After his death, Mrs. Toulmin “ignored the advice of the company’s attorney to sell Central Pharmaceuticals for $1 million and instead ran it for 30 years.”  She later sold the company for $178 million.  Georgetown received the gift upon the death of Mrs. Toulmin, who passed away on June 13.  The gift will fund an endowment to support medical research at the university’s medical center.  

The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports that the Toulmin fortune also has enriched another nonprofit, the Dayton Foundation, which has received $26-million from Mrs. Toulmin’s estate.  According to the Dayton Foundation’s website, the gift creates an unrestricted fund, “to be utilized by the Foundation where community need or opportunity is greatest in the Greater Dayton Region today and in perpetuity.”

JRB