Former Merrill Lynch CEO and prominent Penn Stater William A. Schreyer has died, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Schreyer, who graduated from Penn State in 1948, chaired the Executive Committee at CSIS, a global policy institution.
‘We celebrate his life of service to America, and to CSIS,’ reads a statement on the CSIS website. ‘We will miss him greatly.’
The statement was posted sometime this weekend. As of early Sunday morning, Penn State had yet to post a formal statement of its own.
Schreyer and his wife, Joan L. Schreyer, committed more than $58 million in philanthropic support to Penn State, ranking them among the university’s most prolific donors. Joan L. Schreyer, a native of Buffalo, N.Y., was named an honorary alumna of Penn State in 1991.
The Schreyers are especially well known at the university for their 1997 endowment — some $30 million — of the Schreyer Honors College.
In November 2006, Penn State President Graham Spanier announced that the college had received an additional $25 million commitment from the Schreyers. At the time, the university was setting the groundwork for its current fundraising effort, For the Future: The Campaign for Penn State Students.
‘Joan and I have great confidence in Penn State, and — yes, I must say it — we are bullish about its future,’ Bill Schreyer said in a prepared statement then. ‘We hope our gift today inspires others to express their generosity to the university in the next campaign.’
In the financial world, Bill Schreyer, a Williamsport native, worked more than four decades for Merrill Lynch. He became CEO in 1984, chairman in 1985 and chairman emeritus in 1993, according to past reports supplied by Penn State. He joined the university Board of Trustees in 1986 and was board chairman from 1993 through 1996. He was named a Distinguished Alumnus in 1979.
The Schreyers lived together in Princeton, N.J. StateCollege.com will post more information as it becomes available.
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