The University announced this week that Charter Trustee Robert Murley '72 and his wife, Mary Pivirotto Murley '76, will make a $2 million donation to fund the construction of a tower in Whitman College, which is scheduled to be finished in 2007.
The Murleys timed their donation to coincide with the 25th anniversary of their wedding, Sept. 15, 1979.
The tower will be among the new college's most prominent architectural features.
The administration has known about the gift for several months, but waited until the fall to announce it, President Tilghman said in an email.
The Murleys, who live in Lake Forest, Ill., have not yet decided what name they would like for the tower, Tilghman said.
"I would say that making a contribution to the University to encourage future generations to reach a higher level of accomplishment is really the goal of contributing to Princeton," Mary Murley said.
The Murleys are pleased to support the new four-year residential college system, she said. "This will add to the diversity of options that are available to students," Murley said. "I think it provides a very viable alternative to the eating clubs."
Robert Murley, who was a politics major and in Tiger Inn, is in his 10th year on the board of trustees of the University. Mary Murley, who was an English major and in Cap and Gown Club, is in the second year of a three-year term on the Princeton Project 55 board of trustees.
"Both Bob and I have been involved in some aspect of fundraising on behalf of the University for a long time," she said.
Robert Murley is now chairman of the Americas in investment banking at Credit Suisse First Boston and was national annual giving chairman for the University in the late 1980s. Mary Murley was president of her class for five years between her 15th and 20th reunions at the University, she added.
She met her husband in New York City in 1978, when they were both working in banking.
They married the following year.
Though they did not meet at a University function, "the fact that we went to Princeton created a lot of opportunities for conversation," she said.
The University announced several gifts for the Whitman College complex last spring and summer, including the large dormitory that will be named in honor of the parents of Peter Wendell '72 and an anonymous gift that will honor the former Dean of Admission Fred Hargadon.
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