W&M receives $50M gift from alum for Batten School, VIMS

William & Mary alumnus Dr. R. Todd Stravitz has donated $50 million to the Williamsburg university to create a full-tuition scholarship fund for its new Batten School of Coastal & Marine Sciences and the Virginia Institute for Marine Science, W&M announced Thursday.

This is W&M’s largest ever scholarship fund donation, it said in the announcement, and the first scholarships will be awarded for the fall 2025 semester.

Stravitz and the Brunckhorst Foundations, his family’s philanthropic organization, made the donation months after Hampton Roads philanthropist Jane Batten’s $100 million gift to establish the Batten School and expand VIMS, announced in July 2024. Batten’s donation also creates the state’s first bachelor’s degree program in coastal and marine sciences, recently approved by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV).

“When I was a student, a degree like this didn’t exist, and I want to create the pathway for today’s students to experience the best of William & Mary so they are prepared for the greatest challenges of their generation,” said Stravitz, a 1982 W&M graduate. “Our best hope for solving the environmental crises we face is educating young people to care for and improve our planet. Programs like this are critical to our future, and I’m honored to support this vital mission.”

A former liver surgeon and retired medical director of VCU Health’s Hume-Lee Transplant Center, Stravitz made a $104 million donation to support liver research at VCU in 2022 and established the Stravitz-Sanyal Institute for Liver Disease and Metabolic Health.

Stravitz, a Richmond resident, is an heir to the Boar’s Head Provisions Co. fortune, which his grandfather, Frank Brunckhorst, founded in 1905. The Brunckhorst Foundations, started by Stravitz’s late mother, Barbara Brunckhorst, make donations toward medical research and environmental sustainability.

The first cohort of undergraduate students will start studies this fall with an “immersion semester” at the Batten School and VIMS campus at Gloucester Point.

“We are deeply grateful to Dr. Stravitz and the Brunckhorst Foundations,” W&M President Katherine A. Rowe said in a statement. “This gift removes financial barriers, allowing the brightest minds to access the learning and tools needed to address our planet’s urgent problems. These future trailblazers will craft solutions that safeguard ecosystems, economies, and the communities that depend on them around the globe.”