William Polk Carey (May 11, 1930 – January 2, 2012) was an American philanthropist and businessman. He was the founder of W. P. Carey & Co., a corporate real estate financing firm headquartered in New York City, and donated the funds to establish the

Carey Business School The Johns Hopkins Carey Business School (also Carey Business School or simply Carey) is the graduate business school of Johns Hopkins University, a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. It was established in 2007 and offers full-t ...

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

, the

University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law The University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law (formerly University of Maryland School of Law) is the law school of the University of Maryland, Baltimore and is located in Baltimore City, Maryland, U.S. Its location places Maryland ...

and the

W. P. Carey School of Business The W. P. Carey School of Business is the business school of Arizona State University and is one of the largest business schools in the United States, with over 300 faculty, and more than 1,582 graduate and 15,077 undergraduate students (2019-2 ...

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

Early life, career, and family

As a young man, Carey attended elementary school a
Calvert School
and left Roland Park's

Gilman School Gilman School is an all-boys independent school located in the Roland Park neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. There are three school divisions: Lower School, grades pre-kindergarten through five; Middle School, grades six through eight; and Upp ...

to go to the

Pomfret School Pomfret School is an independent, coeducational, college preparatory boarding and day school in Pomfret, Connecticut, United States, serving 350 students in grades 9 through 12 and post-graduates. Located in the Pomfret Street Historic District, t ...

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

, then attended

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

. He left Princeton for supposedly missing chapel and attended the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

, graduating in 1953, before establishing himself in New Jersey working in his step-father's car dealership. Carey resided in New York City and

Rensselaerville, New York Rensselaerville () is a town in Albany County, New York, United States. The population was 1,826 at the 2020 census. The town is named after Stephen Van Rensselaer. History Rensselaerville was once part of the Manor of Rensselaerswyck; as such ...

. Carey was an alumnus of the

Delta Phi Delta Phi () is a fraternity founded in 1827 at Union College in Schenectady, New York consisting of ten active chapters along the East Coast of the United States. The fraternity also uses the names "St. Elmo," "St. Elmo Hall," or merely "Elmo" ...

fraternity and was an active member in the University of Pennsylvania chapter. He was an active member of the University Club in NYC. He was also Governor-General of the

Society of Mayflower Descendants The General Society of ''Mayflower'' Descendants — commonly called the Mayflower Society — is a hereditary organization of individuals who have documented their descent from at least one of the 102 passengers who arrived on the ''Mayflower'' ...

in New York State.

Philanthropy and legacy

Carey Hall at The Gilman School

In the mid-1990s, the

started discussing much-needed renovations of Carey Hall, the school's main building which houses the Upper School students. Carey Hall, named after Carey's grandmother, was constructed in 1910 and remained the same until late 2006. Carey donated 10 million dollars to the school's capital campaign fund, a sum that was one fifth of the total amount of money raised for the renovation of Carey Hall. On December 10, 2007, Carey Hall was officially re-opened as Carey cut the ribbon signaling the start of a new generation in a new, updated Carey Hall.

Arizona State University W. P. Carey School of Business

Carey was benefactor to the

College of Business. In 2002, Carey donated $50 million to the College of Business. In recognition of his gift, the University renamed its business school the

The Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School

Carey announced December 5, 2006, his donation of $50 million to

. He was a trustee emeritus at Hopkins and donated the money through his W.P. Carey Foundation. The gift was the largest to Hopkins in support of business education and is now called the

. The Hopkins business school will be named after William Carey's great-great-great-grandfather, James Carey.Johns Hopkins Launches New Schools of Business, Education
/ref> The school offers full- and part-time

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

programs, as well as specialized master's degree programs in finance, marketing, information systems, health care management, and enterprise risk management. The school's

Master of Science in Real Estate Graduate real estate education is the study of real estate development at the graduate school level. It has taken many forms, giving rise to various educational models in different countries. The decision for individuals pursuing higher education ...

program was one of the first in the Baltimore/Washington, D.C. corridor.

University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law

On April 25, 2011, Carey announced his donation of $30 million to The

University of Maryland School of Law The University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law (formerly University of Maryland School of Law) is the law school of the University of Maryland, Baltimore and is located in Baltimore City, Maryland, U.S. Its location places Maryland ...

.University of Maryland
/ref> The emphasis of the gift was to increase the school's endowment. The school is being named after Carey's grandfather, Francis King Carey, who was a graduate of the Law School (Class of 1880).

University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School

In 2019, The W. P. Carey Foundation donated $125 million to the

University of Pennsylvania Law School The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School (also known as Penn Law or Penn Carey Law) is the law school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is among the most selective and olde ...

, setting a new record as the largest gift to a law school. In recognition of the Foundation and its long-term involvement with Penn, the Penn Board of Trustees approved a resolution designating that the school would be named the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School as of November 8, 2019. The name change, which the Carey Foundation and the University of Pennsylvania Law School had intended to take place simultaneously with the announcement of the gift, proved unpopular with students and alumni, thousands of whom quickly signed an online petition protesting the Foundation's decision to replace "Penn Law" with "Carey Law" as the law school's new "short form" name; in response to the backlash, the Law School and Foundation agreed to delay the full name-change to "Penn Carey Law" until the beginning of the 2022 Fall Term.

References

External links

*

W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carey, William P. 1930 births 2012 deaths Businesspeople from Baltimore Princeton University alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni Arizona State University alumni Johns Hopkins University people American real estate businesspeople Philanthropists from New York (state) People from Rensselaerville, New York Pomfret School alumni Gilman School alumni 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American philanthropists