Development News

Thank you for your loyal support to the Winthrop Fund in 2009. Alumni and friends helped us carry out yet another successful year. Your collective gifts enabled us to support key efforts including: student scholarships, faculty awards, the Alumni Association and other key priorities. To make your 2010 contribution to the Winthrop Fund, please click here to make a gift or make a gift during our Spring Phonathon.

Society of 1886 renamed D.B. Johnson Society. Winthrop grew out of the vision of its founder, David Bancroft Johnson. As superintendent of schools in Columbia, S.C., Johnson was keenly aware of the lack of professionally trained school teachers in the state and felt strongly that a teacher training school was the answer.

To establish funding for the school, Johnson went to Robert C. Winthrop, Massachusetts philanthropist and chair of the Peabody Fund. The philanthropist shared Johnson's vision and secured the $1,500 needed to open Winthrop Training School in 1886. Born on Jan.10, 1856, Johnson led Winthrop from 1886 until he died in 1928. He and his wife are buried on the campus in the Little Chapel.

Quick Facts About D.B. Johnson Society

• This particular group is made up of a special group of alumni and friends who have included Winthrop in their estate planning.
• Those who have committed to the society by Sept. 30, 2011, will be recognized and formally inducted as members of the Charter Class of the D.B. Johnson Society during the university’s Quasquicentennial, or 125th anniversary, celebrations.

For more information, please click here.