Northern Michigan University Alum John Berry Jr. and his wife Shirly donated 3.5 million dollars to the institution on Monday, Jan. 27, to be put towards the College of Business Deanship and supporting the Northern Enterprise Center. It will be the new home for the College of Business on campus once constructed.
“That’s the largest single gift in Northern history,” Dr. Brock Tessman, President of NMU said. “It’s a day we’re celebrating, that’s for sure.”
The Berry family have donated over 10 million dollars to the university in their lifetime. John Berry Jr. is an 1971 alumni of the Accounting program, and has decided to contribute his donation back into his alma mater to benefit the students within the program he once was in.
Tessman states this major donation is just the beginning of a semester directed towards the benefit of students, and this is just the tip of the iceberg for the rest of the year.
“There’s just no other way to put it is our students. That is what our donors want to support,” Dr. Tessman said. “It may be student athletes, it may be students who are studying business, but it’s the students.”
Money donated from the Berry’s can be seen across campus in different ways. From the Berry Events Center to their annual scholarship given to incoming Freshman students in the Honors College of Business.
“The college experience is really transformative. I think John and Shirley both appreciate that as a big part of what northern has to offer, to the extent that he [John] and Shirley decided to make this major gift. So it’s quite a thing to celebrate,” Dr. Tessman said.