Notre Dame Receives 2 Gifts Totaling More Than $200M

In the past two weeks, the University of Notre Dame has received two substantial gifts totaling $205 million.

Late last month, alumnus Matthew Walsh and his wife, Joyce, donated $150 million to Notre Dame’s School of Architecture, which will be renamed the Matthew and Joyce Walsh School of Architecture at Notre Dame.

Matthew Walsh, who earned a B.A. in English from Notre Dame in 1968, later joined his family’s Chicago-based business, Walsh Construction, where he eventually became co-chair. His grandfather founded the firm in 1898—the same year Notre Dame’s school of architecture was established.

“Through the support of the Walsh family, our School of Architecture—widely renowned for its classical and new urbanist approach to the discipline—has an opportunity to build its already prestigious program in ways that will influence the teaching and practice of architecture in our country and around the world,” said Provost John McGreevy.

On Monday, the university also announced a $55 million gift from Francis and Kathleen Rooney to endow the Rooney Democracy Institute, first established in 2008 as the Rooney Center for the Study of American Democracy. The institute is designed to promote scholarship and dialogue on American democracy.

Francis Rooney was the CEO of Rooney Holdings Inc., a Florida-based investment and holding company. He also served as ambassador to the Holy See under George W. Bush and, later, as a two-term congressman from Florida. His three children with Kathleen are all Notre Dame graduates.

“Notre Dame’s long tradition of cultivating civil discourse and our ability to convene prominent voices across a range of perspectives have enabled us to lead important conversations about democracy for decades,” said university president Robert Dowd. “Thanks to the extraordinary generosity and vision of Francis and Kathleen, generations of students and scholars will have the opportunity to engage with the political challenges and opportunities of their times in the context of both democratic principles and Catholic social teaching.”