Le Moyne to start insurance, risk-management major with $7 million McNeil family donation

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Le Moyne College will use a $7 million donation to launch a new undergraduate major in risk management and insurance.

The major will bring to the school a “new academic discipline in one of today’s fastest-growing career fields,” Le Moyne contends.

The McNeil family of Cortland, “one of Le Moyne College’s third-generation families,” donated the funding, the school said in a news release posted on the school’s website. Le Moyne announced the donation at its Founders’ Day Gala on Oct. 19

The McNeil gift is part of the college’s $100 million Always Forward campaign, which it publicly announced earlier this year. The donation will create a new endowment to establish three to four endowed professorships to support the new program “in perpetuity.”

Le Moyne has started taking steps within the institution to set up the major, and will “eventually apply for approval” from the New York State Education Department. The program’s launch date at Le Moyne is dependent on receiving state approval, the college said.

“We look forward to working with the McNeil family to develop a program that will be on the cutting-edge of the risk management and insurance industry,” Le Moyne Provost Joe Marina said in the release. “This gift will help us to continue to expand our academic offerings to best serve our students now and into the future.”

About the McNeil family

Dan McNeil Jr. is a 1951 graduate of Le Moyne College, part of the school’s first graduating class. He is president of McNeil Development Company in Cortland, which owns and manages commercial property.

His son, Dan McNeil III, who graduated from Le Moyne in 1977, is president of McNeil & Company in Cortland, a provider of insurance programs and risk-management services for specialty niche markets nationwide. Those markets include an emergency-services insurance program for fire and emergency organizations; ambulance-services insurance program for private-ambulance services and HOMed for home-medical equipment dealers.

Mary McNeil, Dan Jr.’s daughter, graduated in 2008 with an MBA degree from Le Moyne, and currently serves as COO of McNeil & Company.

Dan III’s daughter, Lauren Davis, is a 2008 graduate of Le Moyne, and serves as VP of operations at McNeil & Co.

“We owe so much to Le Moyne, not just in our professional lives, but also for how the Jesuit values imbued during our time at the college play such a vital role in shaping us as individuals,” Dan McNeil III, who currently serves on the Le Moyne board of trustees, said in the Le Moyne release. “We are so pleased to be able to give back to the institution in this way.”

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com