Boston College has announced a $75 million gift from the estate of Joyce L. and E. Paul Robsham in support of financial aid, academic programming, facilities improvements, and the Robsham Theater Arts Center.

The couple, whose son, Paul, Jr., died in a car accident in 1983, the summer after his freshman year at Boston College, were longtime supporters of the college and dedicated the arts center in Paul, Jr.'s honor in 1985. Paul Robsham, who earned his master's degree from Boston College's Lynch School of Education and Human Development and served on the BC board, had specified before his death in 2004 that the college be "the major beneficiary" of the couple's estate. Before her death in 2018, Joyce Robsham funded an endowed professorship that brings professional theater artists to work with undergraduate students.

The estate gift establishes new undergraduate scholarships for students studying the performing arts, as well as graduate fellowships for those pursuing careers in counseling or school psychology. Combined with their previous scholarship support, the Robshams' gifts now provide financial aid for nearly twenty-five BC students a year. The gift also provides for major programming enhancements in psychology, including training programs for undergraduate and graduate students at the Lynch School, and funds for ongoing operations, repair, and upkeep of the Robsham Theater.

Through their support of student life, financial aid, the arts, and academics, the Robshams' legacy will live on for generations, said Robsham estate trustee Jack Downs. "Whatever assistance they could provide, they wanted to make sure it made the biggest impact possible for BC students," he said. "As we see their vision come to fruition, I know they would be deeply satisfied."

(Photo credit: Lee Pellegrini)