The Philanthropy 50 2009 Gift Profile: Alfred M. and Mary Swain Wood

Alfred M. and Mary Swain Wood: $75.9-million

Biggest beneficiary: Centre College

Other key beneficiaries: Harvard University and Berea College

Donors’ background: Mr. Wood was a former sales executive at Procter & Gamble, in Cincinnati, and a cattle rancher in Oklahoma. Ms. Wood was a sales representative for Pearson Scott Foresman, a publisher of children’s books, in Lebanon, Ind.

Mr. Wood, who was 100 when he died in 1997, and his wife, Mary, who was 99 when she died in 2008, bequeathed $16.4-million to Centre College, in Danville, Ky., to endow scholarships. Ms. Wood grew up in Danville.

The couple also left $15.3-million to Harvard University, in Cambridge, Mass., from which Mr. Wood graduated in 1921; and $10.7-million to Berea College, in Kentucky. Mr. Wood grew up near Berea, in Wildie, Ky., where his father operated a grocery store and post office. In 1914, he graduated from the Berea Academy, a college-preparatory school that was then run by Berea College.

He joined the U.S. Navy, serving as a fighter pilot in World War I, and later as commander of Mediterranean naval operations during World War II. In between the two wars he earned a degree in economics at Harvard. Mr. Wood went on to work for Procter & Gamble for almost 40 years, first in the corporation’s Kansas City, Mo., office, and later in its Dallas offices. He and Ms. Wood met in Dallas when they both lived at the Stoneleigh Hotel. They married in the late 1950s when he was 60 and she was 50. It was the first marriage for both.

Their additional bequests include $7.6-million to Austin College, in Sherman, Tex.; $7.6-million to Maryville College, in Tenn.; $5.7-million to Texas Presbyterian Foundation, in Irving; $4.7-million to Highland Park Presbyterian Church, in Dallas; $4.6-million to Presbyterian Village North, in Dallas; and $3.3-million to Saint Joseph-Berea Hospital, in Ky.

—Maria Di Mento

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