In April 2000, the University Board of Trustees approved the Wythes Plan, which gradually increased the size of the undergraduate student body by 500 students from about 4,600 students to 5,100 students.
The plan also recommended the construction of a new residential college — which ended up being named Whitman College.
While on the board, Wythes also served as the vice chair of the search committee that chose Shirley Tilghman as the University’s 19th president. Wythes also endowed a professorship in the department of operations research and financial engineering.
After graduating from the University with a degree in mechanical engineering and serving for two years in the U.S. Navy, Wythes spent his career in venture capital where his company, Sutter Hill Ventures, thrived as one of the industry’s earliest firms. He earned a master’s in business administration from Stanford four years after graduating from Princeton.