Jesus College is delighted to announce that alumnus Mr Christopher Richey (1984, MPhil Management Studies) and the Richey Family Foundation has made a new significant gift to College to support its academic priorities.

The $480k (£380k) gift will enable to the College to fund the creation of several new spend-down posts:

• A four-year Career Development Fellowship (CDF) in Academic Skills Support, given in the name of Nelson J. Carr
• Ten Research Associates in Medical Sciences, given in the name of Dr. Sara Hope Browne
• A match-funded four-year DPhil Studentship in Computer Science, given in the name of Professor Sir Nigel Shadbolt FRS, Jesus College Principal
• A spend-down two-year Digital Access Officer position to support the College’s access team, given in the name of Earle J. Richey.

This gift builds on Mr Richey’s previous generous support to College, which includes a £1m gift to endow of a graduate studentship at Jesus in any subject, and the naming of the Buchanan Tower Room in honour of alumnus and First World War hero Captain Angus Buchanan VC.

The provision of funding for additional early career fellowships, academic skills training for students, research associations and graduate studentships, will support key academic priorities for the College. In addition to continuing their research while at Jesus, the Nelson J. Carr CDF in Academic Skills Support will be responsible for developing and delivering a programme of skills-based training for both undergraduate and graduate students, and especially for those who join the College from disadvantaged backgrounds or without English as a first language. Training will include topics such as time-management, writing, giving presentations, reading and note-taking, and how to approach assessed work. The establishment of the Earle J. Richey Digital Access Officer post will enable Jesus’ Access and Outreach team to enhance its production of digital content to reach more prospective students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

 

In naming the new posts, Mr Richey wishes to acknowledge the vital role family history and benefaction has played in his own achievements. Richey explains, “I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my grandfather, Earle Jacob Richey, and his business partner and brother-in-law, Nelson J. Carr. These gifts are a way of expressing that gratitude. Nelson J. Carr, of Osage, Cherokee, and European descent, provided the capital to start Richey and Carr’s Rexall, a local pharmacy and general store in Erie, Kansas, in the 1920’s, while my grandfather provided the knowledge and labor. While his formal education ended at age 12 when his family was left bereft, having been abandoned by their husband and father, Earle was apprenticed out as a shop boy in a nearby town, and studied on his own time and became a licensed pharmacist. That Richey and Carr store provided the income that put my own father and three of his brothers through college during the 1930s and 1940s, which were hard times to raise, educate, and provide for children.

The store finally closed in the early 2000s, having provided three generations of Richeys a good base from which to start. Its longevity is a testament to the value that Earle placed upon education and family. He was a very bright man who just lacked the opportunity in terms of formal education to hone his intelligence. Ultimately, it was Nelson’s generosity and Earle’s hard work that meant my father got his college education, and provided me with the opportunity to attend and obtain a degree from Oxford University. It is my hope that these gifts likewise provide a path of opportunity to others.”

He adds, “I also want to honor those two men because of the emphasis they placed on family; having held families together through the Great Depression, as well as the Osage murders, though each came from less than ideal family upbringings.”    

 

The creation of ten new Dr Sara Hope Browne Research Associates in Medical Sciences will be available to scholars at Oxford without a specific College affiliation, and are named in honour of Mr Richey’s wife. Dr Browne M.D. is an Emeritus Professor of Clinical Medicine in the Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). She received her undergraduate education at the University of Cape Town, RSA and her medical degree from the University of Oxford School of Medicine. She has a Master’s in Public Health from the Harvard University School of Public Health, where she was a Fulbright Scholar. She completed her UK license at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, and has also founded a charity, Specialists in Global Health, which is dedicated to training doctors in developing countries, in specialties of medicine. Mr Richey says, “Sara’s main focus is on Global Health. The named Research Associates at Jesus are a meaningful way to connect her medical legacy and Oxford training to College.”

The match-funded four-year DPhil Studentship in Computer Science is given in the name of Professor Sir Nigel Shadbolt FRS, who has been Jesus College Principal since 2015, and is a world-leading expert in computer and data sciences. Mr Richey also noted, “It is important to acknowledge Sir Nigel’s monumental contribution to both the physical and intellectual expansion of the College. His tenure as Principal has firmly placed Jesus College at the center of the future of the University. I am honored to be able to attach his name to this DPhil scholarship in Computer Science.”

Dr Brittany Wellner-James, Jesus College Director of Development, reflected, “We are enormously grateful to Chris and the Richey Family Foundation for their continued generosity to College, and for this transformational gift to further support our academic priorities”.

The new posts will commence in Michaelmas 2024.