Apple marketing boss Phil Schiller and his wife Kim made a monstrous donation to Bowdoin College this week that will help the school seriously expand its research into climate change’s impact on the ocean.
The $10 million gift from the Schillers will be used to enhance Bowdoin College’s 118-acre Coastal Studies Center in Maine. Plans for a state-of-the-art dry laboratory connected to the center’s existing marine laboratory and a convening center are already underway. The expansion should make the school one of the best places for ocean studies.
News of the Schillers’ generous donation was revealed by the school today. One of the couple’s sons graduated from the college in 2017. Phil Schiller grew up on the East Coast in Natick, Massachusetts, and studied biology at Boston College.
“This extraordinary act of generosity and vision by Phil and Kim Schiller will transform the Coastal Studies Center into a facility where students and faculty from Bowdoin and from other institutions can gather together for concentrated periods to learn from each other and to advance knowledge and understanding about the ocean, marine science, and the impact of climate change on marine life,” said Bowdoin College President Clayton S. Rose in a statement.
With the Schillers’ money, the school will build modernized classrooms, housing and dining facilities for students, faculty and visiting scholars. The facility will also be used for facility retreats and as a place where local and national leaders can come to discuss important issues facing the world’s oceans.
To honor the Schillers’ gift, the new facility will be named the Schiller Coastal Studies Center, which occupies 2.5 miles of shoreline on Orr’s Island.
