The Friends With First Aid

History was made last October 3.

"We have done this with the sure and certain knowledge that it would please Mr. Duke," said Duke Endowment Chair Russell Robinson, referring to the godfather of the Bull City's most storied institution.

Seventy-five million dollars--as President Richard Brodhead says--is the gift that keeps on giving. The money was crucial in anchoring the University's Financial Aid Initiative and allowed Duke's top brass to set the fundraising bar higher than anyone had even considered.

The University said it hopes the Initiative will manage to reach $300 million over the next three years. If Duke reaches this amount, total aid monies would surge to $1 billion, comprising about a quarter of Duke's full endowment.

"Education was as primary as religion in their minds--they wanted all young people to have it," Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans said that same October day.

Well, thanks to the Duke Endowment providing the University's financial aid coffers with the biggest gift Dear Old Duke has ever seen, the charitable organization is one step closer to making sure all Blue Devils are able to afford an education.