Ronald and Marilyn WalterRonald A. Walter, SM ’72, and his wife, Marilyn R. Walter, have established a gift trust to create a named, endowed financial aid fund for future students. We met with Ron in New York to learn more about his life’s work and how he found a gift trust to be his preferred way of making a difference for the Harvard Chan School.

“My parents were both refugees at the start of World War Two, arriving in a strange country with few resources but with an appreciation for education,” he said. “Being a first-generation student myself, I am excited to see the current waves of immigrant and native ‘first-gen’ students make their future through education. Marilyn and I initiated a gift trust to the School and to MIT for the benefit of first-generation students.”

After graduating from MIT with undergraduate and graduate degrees in civil engineering, Ron was hired by MIT’s Urban Planning Department. His research involved developing an information system for an inner-city health center—which sparked his interest in health issues. To delve into the topic, he and associates at Harvard Medical School launched a seminar on health planning. Feeling that his participation would be more credible if he had formal health-planning credentials, he applied to the Harvard Chan School and was offered a scholarship. He continued to teach at MIT as an assistant professor while earning his master of science in health services administration at Harvard Chan.

Ron’s career then progressed from academia to public policy to finance, as he joined the New York City mayor’s office during the financial crisis of the 1970s. “I was the mayoral assistant for health, hospitals, education, and welfare,” Ron said. “As the principal contact with the agency heads, I dealt with many crises and tried to promote restructuring to improve, or at least maintain, services over the long term. I never worked as hard on any other job but was rewarded with the feeling that we were saving the city.”

Ron’s leadership led to a position with Citigroup, where he was responsible for the investment of the groups’ employee benefit assets. “That position gave me the opportunity to think about retirement and legacy assets,” he said. “A gift trust has an attractive return, provides a tax benefit, and funds a charitable gift that over time, with additional contributions, can become significant.”

Ron now serves as a board member at Hancock Shaker Village and the Norman Rockwell Museum, both in the Berkshires. “Learning about art for both Marilyn and me is one of the treats of retirement. Marilyn’s sister and sister-in-law are professional artists, but we don’t paint or draw. We do enjoy courses at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.”

Cooking is also a passion of Ron’s. “It began when I was a Boy Scout. I found that cooking was more fun than washing dishes or hunting for firewood!” he remembered. “My cooking often involves equipment like a smoker or sous vide apparatus. It’s a guy thing. I’ve roasted the family Thanksgiving turkey annually for forty years.”

Ron and Marilyn have two grown daughters, both teachers, and a granddaughter. When asked about his definition of success, he replies, “Balancing family life and professional life.” He and Marilyn have done that, and in the process have balanced their philanthropy with sophisticated giving. They contribute annually to their gift trust to help it grow, and as it grows it continues to provide an income to them and eventually a significant contribution to the education of students at the Harvard Chan School.