The Endowment of the Deanship

One of the most important collegiate pulpits in the United States, Marsh Chapel is where Rev. King became Dr. King. The voice of then Dean Howard Thurman still echoes in the current deanship and prophetic voice of the Rev. Dr. Robert Allan Hill. Endowment of the Deanship will ensure the future of this vital and powerful legacy.

One of the chief interests of Marsh Chapel is to complete the endowment of the Deanship.   The desire of the Marsh community, Advisory Board, and current leadership is to make the future of Marsh Chapel as permanently influential, and steadily strong as possible, across the University, the region, and the globe.  The deanship endowment is a crucial part of that goal.

The Dean of Marsh Chapel provides spiritual leadership for Boston University through preaching in the radio broadcast Sunday morning worship service and in other settings, through teaching in the University and other venues, and through providing devotional and pastoral leadership across the University’s 17 Schools and Colleges, and multiple religious traditions.  In 1882, then Dean William Huntington (later to become the second President of the University) gave $20,000, in honor and memory of his recently and suddenly deceased wife, Emma Speare Huntington, in support of leadership for religious work on campus.  That gift is the oldest endowment at the University and currently carries a value of approximately $800,000.  From 2006-2011, interest from this endowment was itself reinvested in the endowment, for a gain of approximately $100,000 (bringing the total now to $800K).  The interest now is used as one of the supports for the Dean of Marsh Chapel.

Full support for the Deanship requires an endowment of $5M, or another $4,200,000.  Our hope is that a person or persons, either in a direct gift or through a planned gift, will complete the historical work and follow the generous precedent of the gift made in 1882.

Giving