The Grove Gift

On one of Grove’s visits to his alma mater, he was inspired by David L.V. Bauer, who won the $100,000 top prize in the Intel Science Talent Search in 2005 and chose to attend City College. For the last six years he had given close to $100,000 to the department of chemical engineering, and also contributed $1.3 million to the college’s first-ever capital campaign.

Not long after meeting Bauer (who went on to become a Rhodes Scholar), Andy Grove donated $26 million the School of Engineering. Grove’s gift – at the time the largest gift the College had ever received, as well as the largest single cash gift to The City University of New York – was transformative. It helped pay for labs and equipment and financial aid for smart, needy students. Just as importantly, it was a catalyst; others, as he had hoped, followed his example and came back and gave back, contributing to the second renaissance to The City College of New York.

"City College is an American dream machine," Dr. Grove said in a telephone interview to The New York Times in October 2005, adding that he hoped to help keep it that way. "It is extremely important for us to cherish the dynamics and institutions that made this country what it was when I came here." He added that the current students at the engineering school reminded him of himself and his classmates. More are of Asian and Middle Eastern origin he pointed out, “but everyone still seems to be in a hurry.”