Duke Law is $5 million richer thanks to Stanley Star, an alum who spent one year enrolled in the school before leaving Durham to become a businessman.
The School of Law announced Jan. 7 that Star, Law ’61, and his wife, Elizabeth Star, pledged $5 million to spur a matching gift initiative. Stanley is the former principal of Cliffstar Corporation, a leading juice manufacturer, according to a Duke news release. Two of the couple’s children graduated from the University.
“I know how important it is for [the School of Law] to have endowed chairs and professorships to attract the best faculty,” Star said. “I think the gift could fund three or four chairs.”
Jeff Coates, associate dean for external relations, described the Stars’ gift as a “rare opportunity” to increase financial support for the law school’s programs, adding that the $5 million will lay the groundwork for a matching gift initiative.
“The initiative created by the $5 million... will be the largest such effort coordinated by the law school,” he said. “It will incentivize donors to match this gift with their own contributions.”
Although the logistics of the matching gift initiative have not been finalized, several prominent benefactors of the law school have expressed their intent to contribute gifts based on the Stars’ pledge, Coates said.
“The Stars’ gift inspired Debbie and me to join the effort,” Peter Kahn, Law ’76 and a member of the Board of the Trustees, said in a statement. “We hope others will likewise feel that same sense of excitement about how great this law school can be if we all come together to support it.”
Star said he did not initially consider a matching gift initiative but “got onboard quickly” after it was suggested by David Levi, dean of the law school.
“A matching gift is a terrific way to motivate others to give,” Levi wrote in an e-mail. “Stan and Elizabeth Star are leading not just by example but are offering to other friends of the law school the opportunity to increase the value and impact of their own gifts and philanthropy.”
Star said he made his first gift to the law school approximately 15 years ago. He chose the school as the major beneficiary of his philanthropy because he values the importance of the education that the school provides to its students.
The Stars’ earlier gifts have funded a wide variety of law school initiatives. Their $3 million pledge in 2004 created Star Commons, a major public gathering place and event venue in the law school. This latest gift came after Star sold his business.
Apart from motivating other donors to pledge major gifts, the Stars’ contribution to the law school is expected to fund additional endowed chairs and professorships as well as academic scholarships for law students, Coates said. He added that the school has seen a decrease in contributions over the past two years during the economic downturn but could not provide more specific statistics.
Coates pointed to the matching gift initiative as an indicator of a potential “return to normalcy” in law school donations this year.
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