Investment banker William Polk Carey has moved far from the Baltimore of his youth - founding a multimillion-dollar company in New York City and serving as a benefactor of earthquake victims in India, farmers in Colorado and economics students in Pennsylvania.
But Gilman School, conceived by his grandmother more than a century ago, always retained a special place in his heart. He served as a trustee, walked the grounds with headmasters and, unbidden, sent members of his class a framed photo of themselves.
Today, the North Baltimore boys school will announce that the investment banker has given it $10 million - the largest such gift that local private school administrators can recall.
"It's just an amazingly successful institution," Carey said of Gilman, which he credits with contributing to his success.
Carey, 72, made his fortune building W.P. Carey & Co., a real estate investment firm that owns or manages more than 500 commercial and industrial properties throughout the United States and Europe, valued at about $4 billion.
His philanthropy, often quiet and occasionally unconventional, has ranged widely. But Carey has been giving to institutions in Baltimore - where he and generations of education-minded Careys before him grew up - for years.
The Gilman gift is the latest he has given to Baltimore institutions. Carey also recently pledged $1 million to pay for part of the expansion of the galleries of the Maryland Historical Society.
He sees the Baltimore gifts as an attempt to restore the greatness of a city that once was a nerve center of America by strengthening institutions with deep roots here.
Noting that Baltimore was a 19th-century hub, Carey said: "It's lost its pre-eminent position. I'd like to see it regain that. I don't see any reason why it shouldn't. It's one heck of a beautiful city. It's a great place to live."
In 1998, Carey's $2.5 million gift to the Johns Hopkins University established a minor in entrepreneurship and management that officials there say has become the most popular undergraduate minor.
Gilman received the same amount from Carey during the 1990s to create an endowment for Carey Hall, its main building, which was named for Carey's grandmother, Anne Galbraith Carey. That gift now is the second-largest in Gilman's history. With his latest donation, Carey calculates he will have given the school $15 million over the years.
Historical society
