ORFE building named for Sherrerd ’52

new operations research and financial engineering (ORFE) building

The University will not release the exact sum of the gift due to the family’s wish for privacy, University spokeswoman Cass Cliatt ’96 said.

“There’s no one I can think of in the last 40 years who has been as dedicated and loyal to the University as Jay Sherrerd,” President Tilghman said in an interview Monday afternoon.

Director of Engineering Communications Steven Schultz said that Sherrerd “had wanted to [make the gift] before he died,” explaining that “his children, through his estate and his family foundation, have carried out his wish.”

Sherrerd has been a strong financial supporter of the University, committing time to three of the University’s previous capital campaigns. He co-chaired the Anniversary Campaign from 1995 to 2000, an effort that raised more than $1.14 billion.

Tilghman explained that Sherrerd “was intending to make a gift to the Aspire campaign and decided that he would like to help [the University] with the ORFE building” instead.

Schultz noted the necessity of the new building, explaining that the University “can’t attract the best faculty and students [in ORFE] without space to interact in and work.”

In an interview earlier this month, Schultz explained that the building was deliberately positioned next to the Wilson School, economics department and finance program so as to symbolically represent the intersection between technology, policy and finance.

Sherrerd Hall, as the new ORFE building will be called, also houses the Center for Information Technology Policy, which, according to its website, “uses Princeton’s unique strengths to promote an informed public discussion of digital technologies.”

The new building conforms to the University’s new sustainability policy, Schultz added, citing the building’s green roof as an example.

Tilghman explained that “the building will benefit the entire E-Quad because it frees up space in the E-Quad building so [the University] can begin to expand the faculty working in energy and environmental areas.”

Sherrerd’s involvement with the University stretches back more than 40 years, and he was one of the few individuals who has served on the Board of Trustees for two consecutive 10-year terms. He also served on more than 22 different committees, was an avid supporter of undergraduate athletics, established three scholarships in honor of his classmates and endowed a University professorship in the economics department.

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Sherrerd majored in economics at the University. After serving as a first lieutenant in an artillery unit during the Korean War, he earned an MBA from the Wharton School at Penn. Upon graduation, he co-founded Miller Anderson and Sherrerd, a Philadelphia-based investment-management firm.

He passed away in his hometown of Bryn Mawr, Pa., in April 2008 after succumbing to a brain tumor. He left behind three children and six grandchildren.

There will be an official dedication event sometime this spring, Schultz said.