J. Erik Jonsson

J. Erik Jonsson, a graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute who had been extraordinarily successful in business and education (as founder of Texas Instruments, as a trustee of the Hockaday School, RPI, and the Graduate Research Center of the Southwest, and later as four-term mayor of Dallas, Texas), had become an important friend of Skidmore shortly after Wilson became president.

Margaret and Erik Jonsson’s daughter, also called Margaret, was a student in Skidmore’s class of 1960 when she was in an automobile accident and injured her neck. President Wilson’s arrangements for her to sleep in the infirmary, to increase her comfort and safety, had earned the gratitude of her parents. Soon Erik Jonsson began the first of his generous donations to the college—$10,000, contributed anonymously—and within two years he was a member of the Skidmore board of trustees. ...

In 1960 the Jonssons invited Val and Ruth Wilson to lunch at the Gideon Putnam Hotel, then the most elegant accommodation in Saratoga Springs. The two couples talked about the challenge that expansion posed to the college. Ruth Wilson remembered, "All of a sudden, Erik said: ‘What do you think of moving to a whole new campus?’ Val puffed on his pipe, thought for a moment, and said, ‘I know just the place.’ "

The four got in the car and drove to Woodlawn, where the Jonssons saw the beauty of the old estate, all one thousand acres of woods and fields. Jonsson offered to obtain the land for the college, telling the trustees, "I will give you the land, provided you study the situation for a year."

College records include an October 18, 1960, purchase agreement between Skidmore and Woodlawn owner Daniel Reisman, under which Skidmore bought the property for $120,000, presumably provided by Jonsson.

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