Washington College Gets $5-Million to Expand Ethics Program
By Maria Di Mento
Senior Editor
September 8, 2014 | Read Time: 1 minute
How much: $5-million bequest
Who got it: Washington College
Who gave it: Richard Holstein, a pediatric dentist in Princeton, N.J.
Where the money will go: To the college’s Holstein Ethics Program, which he established with a $100,000 gift in 2004 to help students understand the importance of living an ethical life. This latest pledge, which he says represents the bulk of his estate, will be used to endow at least two professorships and create an academic program that will weave ethical thinking into all of the college’s courses.
Donor’s connection to the beneficiary: He earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the college in 1968.
How the gift came about: From a decades-long interest in ethics. He says that as a young dental student, he witnessed a lot of dishonorable behavior among his peers, including drug use and cheating on exams. “The school did nothing about this,” he says. “These people graduated, and these are the dentists that are out there now. I can’t stand that.”
