George Washington University in Washington, D.C., has announced gifts totaling $22.5 million in support of need-based scholarships.

The gifts include a bequest of more than $15 million from the estates of alumnae Mary H. Shepard ('64) and her sister, Josephine R. Shepard ('65), whose father, Donald D'arcy Shepard (1918), served as an attorney for and tax advisor to Andrew W. Mellon and was one of the first trustees of the National Gallery of Art. The largest single gift from a graduate in the university's nearly two-hundred-year history will endow the Shepard Scholars program, which will offer scholarships to undergraduates with significant financial need starting with the 2021-22 academic year. The estate also established the Mary Hopkinson Shepard Endowed Graduate Fellowship for Science.

A gift of $6 million from the estate of Mildred Bland Miller, wife of the late Woodrow W. Miller ('47), will establish the Miller Scholars program in support of undergraduates. And GWU president Thomas J. LeBlanc has designated approximately $1.5 million from fifteen other bequests to provide direct assistance to students in the form of need-based grants and scholarships.

"Student aid has the power to change lives and futures for promising students who might not otherwise be able to afford higher education," said LeBlanc. "We are grateful for the generosity of GW alumni whose legacy will live on in the students who benefit from their support." 

(Photo credit: George Washington University)