By ROSE BRENNAN, TAYLOR BRETHAUER, STEPHEN ZUBRYCKY, Editor, Editor-in-Chief, Managing Editor
Manhattan College announced the renaming of the School of Business on Monday, following a $25 million gift from Thomas D. O’Malley ’63.
This recent donation by O’Malley is the single largest gift in the college’s history. Both O’Malley and his wife Mary Alice have already made contributions to the school, including financially supporting the construction of both O’Malley Library and the Raymond W. Kelly Commons.
“Mary Alice and I are pleased to continue our support for Manhattan College,” O’Malley said in a statement posted to the college’s website. “It’s an institution that has remained faithful to its core values. It provides a top quality education in a dynamic and open environment while at the same time maintaining its Catholic identity.”
In an email to students and faculty, the Board of Trustees and the Office of the President announced, “This generous gift will support innovative teaching and research at the undergraduate and graduate level, foster the integration of ethics and integrity into the curriculum, and strengthen and expand Manhattan College’s already extensive connections throughout the New York City business world.”
The O’Malley School of Business will become the first named school in Manhattan College’s history when it is formally dedicated in September.
“The O’Malley gift takes our School of Business to a whole new level,” said Brennan O’Donnell, president of the college, in the press release. “It allows us to expand and deepen our curriculum and research, encourage innovative pedagogy, and strengthen our support for experiential learning.”
O’Malley graduated from Manhattan College in 1963 and went to work for Philipp Brothers. He then made a career in the oil industry, culminating in June 2016, when he resigned as chairman and CEO of PBF Energy.
Janet L. Rovenpor, Ph.D., interim dean of the school, spoke to The Quadrangle over the phone about this announcement.
“I am very privileged to be serving as interim dean at this exciting time,” Rovenpor said. “It’s a momentous time in the history of the School of Business at Manhattan College.”
According to Rovenpor, the gift will allow the School of Business to greatly expand its course programming and opportunities into new fields of study, increase scholarship opportunities and facilitate research with faculty members.
“We’re going to introduce [students] to a discipline that we don’t really have right now, which pertains to the present and the future of the economics of energy, which I think is a very important topic that we’ll be able to address with programming,” Rovenpor said.
She continued.
“We look forward to engaging in a conversation with Mr. O’Malley to get more information about his ideas, because he really is an expert and has a lot of knowledge in the energy business,” Rovenpor said.
“My heart is overflowing with gratitude to Mr. and Mrs. O’Malley,” she said. “I know they’ve been very big supporters of the school and the college in general, and this is really an amazing opportunity for us and we look forward to exploring all the options available with this extra gift.”
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