From the Vault: Ties that Bind

In 1911, when the dean of faculty at Furman left his position in the middle of the term to fulfill his ailing brother’s request to take over managing several cotton mills, he set in motion events that led to one of the most significant relationships in the university’s history.

For the next 22 years, Bennette Eugene Geer, Class of 1896, managed mills in the Upstate of South Carolina. In his second year, as president of what became Judson Mills, Geer befriended his company’s largest shareholder, the industrialist James B. Duke.

Bennette Eugene Geer. Photo from Furman University Special Collection.

Duke and Geer spent a great deal of time together in Duke’s Manhattan, New York, office, on long weekends at Duke’s estate in Sommerville, New Jersey, in Charlotte, North Carolina, and in Greenville, talking about business and politics.

“He told people he loved to be with Old Ben. I don’t know why,” Geer, Duke’s junior by 17 years, recalled in an oral history recorded April 17, 1963, by Duke University.

Duke “had one of the most penetrating minds that the South ever produced, and was the greatest builder the South ever produced,” Geer said.

In one conversation, in about 1922, Duke said, “Ben, I believe it’s easier to make money than it is to give it away.”

“Which of course was to say that half the people who had money and gave it away did more harm than good,” Geer said. “He wasn’t thinking just about turning the money loose but turning it loose so that it would do something worthwhile.”

Around this time, Duke invited Geer and his wife, Rena, to join him on his private railway car to New York. After dinner, as the train clickety-clacked through the countryside, Duke told Geer, “You know, my brother and I are just giving Trinity College (now Duke University) $5 million to help their law school.”

And Geer said, “Mr. Duke, I wish sometime you might help my little school down at Greenville a little bit, Furman University. He said, ‘Yes, I will.’”

In 1924, Duke signed an indenture to create The Duke Endowment, one of the largest foundations in the country. The night before, he told Geer he was including Furman with Davidson, Johnson C. Smith and Trinity colleges.

“How much do you want?” Duke asked Geer. “I’d be delighted with anything you do,” Geer said.

Duke started the endowment with $40 million; Furman received 5% of the income, “an endowment equal to $2 million,” Geer said.

To date, The Duke Endowment remains one of Furman’s most important supporters, with grants for The Furman Advantage alone totaling nearly $80 million.

Geer couldn’t sleep the night the indenture was signed. He was afraid he’d dreamed the whole scenario, and he told Duke so the next morning. Duke laughed. “Well, are you satisfied?” he asked Geer.

“Perfectly satisfied,” Geer said.

Duke died the next year of pneumonia. Geer, an original trustee of The Duke Endowment, left the mills in 1933 to become Furman’s sixth president, serving until 1938. He died in 1964 at age 91.