Alumnus pledges $2 million challenge gift to renovate Cornell arts facilities

December 14, 1999

Jim McWethy, a Chicago-area businessman who rediscovered an affection for Cornell College some 25 years after graduation, has pledged $2 million toward the renovation of Cornell’s fine arts facilities if the college matches the gift 2-to-1 by Dec. 31, 2000. Fund raising for the $4 million balance has begun.

“I was not a stellar arts student by any means, but I’m committed to Cornell and to the liberal arts, and the arts are part of a liberal arts education,” said McWethy, a 1965 graduate living in Downers Grove, Ill. “This is more about making Cornell a college of choice. The fine arts is a critical part of that package.”

Cornell plans to renovate Armstrong Hall, built in 1938, and Alumni Hall, built in 1909, for the fine arts. The $12.7 million project includes $8.9 million to revitalize Armstrong for the music and theater departments and $3.8 million to convert Alumni for the art department.

McWethy graduated from Cornell with a bachelor’s degree in economics and business and mathematics. He earned a master’s degree in economics from Indiana University and taught economics there for three years, later teaching part time for several years at community colleges. For more than 20 years he worked in his family’s business, Berry Bearing Co., then the largest privately held bearing distributor in the world. McWethy was chief financial officer when the business was sold in 1993. He currently works as an independent businessman and serves on several boards, including the Cornell Board of Trustees since 1995.

“I didn’t really think too much about Cornell for the first 20 years after graduation,” he said. Once he did reflect on things that have made a difference in his life, he reconnected with classmates and became involved with the college.

Besides McWethy’s pledge, Cornell’s fine arts renovation project has received three grants totaling $5.2 million:

  • $3 million challenge grant from the Hall-Perrine Foundation of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, contingent on raising $9 million by Dec. 31, 2000.
  • $1 million from the Henry Luce Foundation to build and endow the Peter Paul Luce Gallery (named for a three-term member of the Cornell Board of Trustees) in Alumni Hall.
  • $1.2 million from the Richard P. Kimmel and Laurine Kimmel Charitable Foundation Inc., based in Lincoln, Neb., to build a theater addition to Armstrong Hall.

In addition, the college has received $1 million from the estate of Ronald Fleming, a 1932 graduate, and Winifred Plumb Fleming, a 1933 graduate.