July 24, 1918 – La Verne W. Noyes, President
and founder of the Aermotor Company, announces the gift of $2,500,000 to the
University of Chicago “to express his gratitude to those who ventured the
supreme sacrifice.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, July 25, 1918] The gift will be used for the education of
veterans of World War I and their children with 20 percent of the sum going
toward the salaries of university staff teaching history. The scholarships are still in effect
today. Noyes started out as a
manufacturer of dictionary stands, but things changed in 1883 when he hired
Thomas O. Perry, who had conducted over 5,000 experimental tests, searching
through the scientific method for a modern and efficient windmill. By 1892 the Aermotor Windmill Corporation was
selling over 20,000 of the new windmills, and within ten years the company was
selling the devices at one-sixth the price of previous competitive prices. [www.gasenginemagazine.com] Ida Noyes Hall at the University of Chicago, designed by Shepley, Routan, and Coolidge as a women's dining hall and natatorium, was another gift of Noyes three years earlier in 1915. History is interesting. Exactly one year after he announces the scholarship in 1918, La Verne Noyes dies at the Presbyterian Hospital. With no immediate family the fortune of Noyes
is distributed to 48 different colleges and universities as beneficiaries.
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