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$3.5 Million Gift to Calvert School Names the W. P. Carey Lower School Building
In honor of its most generous alumni donor, Calvert School named its Lower School for Wm. “Bill” Polk Carey ’42 during a dedication ceremony on October 5, 2018. The W. P. Carey Foundation’s gift of $3.5 million will endow the Lower School, which was renamed to the W. P. Carey Lower School Building.
Bill Carey, who passed away in January of 2012, founded the highly successful commercial real estate company, W. P. Carey & Co., in 1973 and subsequently the W. P. Carey Foundation in 1990.
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The W. P. Carey Foundation pledged $3.5 million, the largest single gift in the history of Calvert School. This gift, which will impact as many as 400 Lower Schoolers every year, will establish an endowment to support:
- Educational programming for Calvert’s Lower School students
- The hiring and retaining of leading faculty members
- Essential infrastructure in technology and classrooms resources
“Bill Carey’s extraordinary philanthropy will ensure that the educational tenets of Calvert will remain,” said Calvert School Head Master Andrew Holmgren, who noted that the gift from the Carey Foundation will build on the philosophy of Virgil Hillyer, Calvert’s first Head Master.
“This gift honors the Calvert education that Bill received years ago and furthers our deep tradition of focusing on academic excellence, embracing educational innovation, building strong character, and fostering intellectual curiosity,” said Holmgren.
At the event, William Polk Carey II, Chairman and President of the W. P. Carey Foundation, stated “Bill Carey would be proud to know that this building will now bear his name. He would be pleased to know that so many of his family members are still Calvert students and that the tradition and the quality of the education has continued after all of the years.”
Bill Carey previously established an endowment of $3 million in 2003 to support the creation of Calvert’s Middle School and extend the Calvert curriculum from Sixth Grade to Eighth Grade. The Middle School is named in honor of Bill Carey’s brother, Francis J. Carey.
“It is the treasure of our students, the little boys and girls, who, because of the generosity of the W. P. Carey Foundation and of Bill Carey, will enjoy the same opportunities, the same education, the same care and the same love that Bill and his brother, Frank, carried with them for a lifetime,” remarked Holmgren at the ceremony.
Holmgren continued, “It is because of this generosity that generations of student will know the benefits of a Calvert education and will know the strength of this foundation. And like Bill, today’s student will not rest upon this foundation, but build upon it.”
Calvert School is a coed independent lower and middle school.
