An Obligation to Give Back
Townsend’s gifts honor three generations of family connections to UNC
By Amy Scerba

ohn L. Townsend III (BA ’77, MBA ’82) has pledged $1.2 million to establish The Townsend Family Professorship and $250,000 to the Millennium Society at UNC Kenan-Flagler. The University will apply for a state matching grant of $334,000, bringing the value of the professorship to over $1.5 million. 

“I have been a real beneficiary of the business school and wanted to do something in return,” he explains. “When I attended business school for my MBA, I think it cost $226 a semester.  It was very modest, even at that time, relative to what I got in return, and I feel an obligation to give back.” 

Townsend received his BA in English and history with honors from UNC in 1977, after which he went home to Lumberton, N.C., to work in his family’s farming business. Three years later, he returned to UNC to pursue an MBA. “I chose to attend business school for two reasons. First, it gave me the necessary technical preparation to enter the financial world. Second, it provided a bridge for me to do something different from what I was already doing.” 

After graduation, Townsend moved to New York, where he became vice president of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette within two years. “I quickly discovered that, in many cases, I was better prepared than MBAs coming from other highly competitive programs around the United States.” He joined Goldman Sachs & Co. in 1987 and became a general partner in 1992.

In establishing The Townsend Family Professorship, he will help UNC Kenan-Flagler recruit or retain an outstanding faculty member while also honoring his family’s three generations of connections to UNC. Townsend’s mother, father, sister, brother, wife, father-in-law and sister-in-law are all alumni, and his oldest daughter is a current student. 

“Giving back” in the form of a professorship is especially meaningful to Townsend, who recalls the impact that professors like Dick Levin had on him as a student. “Dick Levin was a legendary professor and a real hero of mine,” he recalls. “He taught integrated management, which was this incredibly intimidating first-year course. I also took his entrepreneurial behavior course in the second year and did an independent study with him. Levin set a high standard. I always felt that if I could do well for him, I would be able to do well in anything.” 

Since 2001, Townsend also has been making $25,000 annual donations to UNC Kenan-Flagler’s Millennium Society, and he has pledged to continue these gifts through 2010. The Millennium Society is a group of the School’s top supporters, and their $25,000 annual unrestricted donations provide support for the dean to address the School’s top priorities.   

“Tuition, fees, endowment income and private gifts are the sources that support our faculty, programs and curriculum,” explains Dean Steve Jones. “The Millennium Society gifts are some of the most valuable — and reliable — gifts we receive each year.” 

Townsend is delighted that his gifts — both endowment and unrestricted — are being put to such good use. “Ever since I graduated, I felt that the business school provided a very strong program with outstanding teachers, and I am eager to see that same kind of terrific leadership there now.”