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Eugene M. Lang (right), who founded the I Have a Dream Foundation, which inspired thousands of low-income students to go to college -- and paid for their education -- died Saturday at the age of 98. Lang was a business executive who set off a philanthropic trend when, in 1981, he visited the grade school that he once attended in New York City. In what he said was a spur-of-the-moment gesture, he promised a class of sixth graders that if they finished high school, he would pay their college tuition. He said later that he realized a typical "work hard" speech wouldn't make much of a difference.
Defying the odds, a significant majority of students did graduate from high school, and many (far more than demographic averages would predict) enrolled in college, tuition paid by Lang. Students in the original class earned degrees from such institutions as Bard College, Barnard College, Swarthmore College, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and others.
Lang established the foundation to encourage others to make similar pledges to groups of disadvantaged young people, and many did so. More than 200 such programs have been started across the United States. A history of the foundation and Lang's efforts may be found here.
In addition to those efforts, Lang was a major donor to individual colleges, in particular to his alma mater, Swarthmore College, which published a tribute here. He also gave the founding gift for an undergraduate, seminar-based college at the New School. The history of the development of the college, which is named for Lang, may be found here.
