{"id":34637,"date":"2024-11-04T10:23:49","date_gmt":"2024-11-04T15:23:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=34637"},"modified":"2025-04-30T10:14:44","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T14:14:44","slug":"from-the-vault-ties-that-bind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/from-the-vault-ties-that-bind\/","title":{"rendered":"From the Vault: Ties that Bind"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1911, when the dean of faculty at Furman left his position in the middle of the term to fulfill his ailing brother\u2019s request<\/strong> to take over managing several cotton mills, he set in motion events that led to one of the most significant relationships in the university\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s largest shareholder, the industrialist James B. Duke.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Bennette Eugene Geer. Photo from Furman University Special Collection.<\/p><\/div>\n

Duke and Geer spent a great deal of time together in Duke\u2019s Manhattan, New York, office, on long weekends at Duke\u2019s estate in Sommerville, New Jersey, in Charlotte, North Carolina, and in Greenville, talking about business and politics.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe told people he loved to be with Old Ben. I don\u2019t know why,\u201d Geer, Duke\u2019s junior by 17 years, recalled in an oral history recorded April 17, 1963, by Duke University.<\/p>\n

Duke \u201chad one of the most penetrating minds that the South ever produced, and was the greatest builder the South ever produced,\u201d Geer said.<\/p>\n

In one conversation, in about 1922, Duke said, \u201cBen, I believe it\u2019s easier to make money than it is to give it away.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhich of course was to say that half the people who had money and gave it away did more harm than good,\u201d Geer said. \u201cHe wasn\u2019t thinking just about turning the money loose but turning it loose so that it would do something worthwhile.\u201d<\/p>\n

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, \u201cYou know, my brother and I are just giving Trinity College (now Duke University) $5 million to help their law school.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Geer said, \u201cMr. Duke, I wish sometime you might help my little school down at Greenville a little bit, Furman University. He said, \u2018Yes, I will.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow much do you want?\u201d Duke asked Geer. \u201cI\u2019d be delighted with anything you do,\u201d Geer said.<\/p>\n

Duke started the endowment with $40 million; Furman received 5% of the income, \u201can endowment equal to $2 million,\u201d Geer said.<\/p>\n

To date, The Duke Endowment remains one of Furman\u2019s most important supporters, with grants for The Furman Advantage alone totaling nearly $80 million.<\/p>\n

Geer couldn\u2019t sleep the night the indenture was signed. He was afraid he\u2019d dreamed the whole scenario, and he told Duke so the next morning. Duke laughed. \u201cWell, are you satisfied?\u201d he asked Geer.<\/p>\n

\u201cPerfectly satisfied,\u201d Geer said.<\/p>\n

Duke died the next year of pneumonia. Geer, an original trustee of The Duke Endowment, left the mills in 1933 to become Furman\u2019s sixth president, serving until 1938. He died in 1964 at age 91.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Furman University’s place in The Duke Endowment started with a friendship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":389,"featured_media":32352,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3057,3055,1963],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-around-the-lake-fall-2024","category-fall-2024","category-furman-magazine"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/389"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34637"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35231,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34637\/revisions\/35231"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}