Alumna’s estate donates $7 million to SU’s iSchool

SYRACUSE — The Syracuse University (SU) School of Information Studies (iSchool) on Wednesday learned that the estate of alumna Estelle Wilhelm is donating $7 million to the school.

The donation represents the “largest single gift” in the iSchool’s history.

Wilhelm died in 2012 in Gillette, N.J., and had no surviving relatives. She served as a professional librarian for most of her career, the iSchool said in a news release.

The Wilhelm estate has requested that the iSchool designate $1 million of the gift to benefit its Tech Endowment, which provides new and upgraded technology for classrooms and labs.

The school has yet to determine how to allocate the remainder of the gift, it said.

The Wilhelm estate made the donation in memory of Wilhelm’s mother, Katherine Katchmar. Wilhelm in 2006 made a $1 million gift to the iSchool that named the Katherine Katchmar Learning Center in Hinds Hall, according to the iSchool.

Wilhelm’s “precedent-setting” gift is all the more “stunning” in light of the story behind it, Eric Spina, SU interim chancellor, said in the news release.

“She made the most of her SU education through a career that she not only found personally fulfilling, but through which she was able to touch the lives of so many with humility and cheer. Ultimately, it actually is a beautiful and towering legacy that she leaves, enabling the iSchool to transmit her impact forward for generations to come,” Spina said.

Wilhelm graduated from SU’s College of Arts and Sciences in 1938 and earned a graduate degree from the iSchool a year later, according to the school.

Wilhelm worked as a children’s librarian from 1939 to 1944 at the Endicott Public Library in Broome County, the Philadelphia Public Library, and the New York Public Library.

She later worked for the military as a post librarian at the Battery General Hospital in Rome, Ga., the U.S. Navy Material Technical Library Catalog Office in New York City, and the military base in Cape Lookout, N.C., where her monthly book allowance was said to be $500, according to the iSchool.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com