[dropcap sid=”dropcap-1446585320″]T[/dropcap]he College was saddened by the passing of Amy Hagedorn on September 8. The alumna was one of the first and among the most significant benefactors to Baruch’s Marxe School of Public and International Affairs (MSPIA). She was 79 years old.
Known to her classmates as Amelia Valentine, Mrs. Hagedorn gave a record-setting $1 million to MSPIA (then the School of Public Affairs) in 2014. Her generosity was recognized by the Wall Street Journal, who named her “donor of the day” on June 30, 2014. To the WSJ, she praised Baruch’s students as “hardworking and earnest,” essentially unchanged from her classmates of the fifties.
The alumna was an ardent believer in opening doors for young people with academic potential but little means. As a college student, the Queens native—the daughter and granddaughter of immigrants—bought used books and brown-bagged her lunch. She often noted that, had tuition not been free in her day, she would not have been able to attend college.
Later in life, she and husband Horace Hagedorn, founder of Miracle-Gro®, became well-known philanthropists, dedicated to supporting education, the environment, economic development, and social equality. After his death in 2005, she led their Long Island–based Hagedorn Foundation.
As her engagement with Baruch College grew, so too did her generosity. She followed up her initial million-dollar gift with a second gift, which included an ongoing, five-year matching component, raising her contributions to Baruch College to $2 million.
Remembering her and her enduring spirit, her fellow Baruch College Fund Trustee Helen Mills says, “Amy Hagedorn was a great role model and influence on me and many others. She was a quiet, caring, and powerfully effective person. We will all miss her very much.
If you would like to make a gift in honor or in memory of Amy Hagedorn, please visit our online donation page or contact Jessica Leitner at 646-660-6074. Thank you.