Largest gift in college history ushers in public launch of $50 million comprehensive campaign
McDaniel College has announced an approximately $15 million bequest, the largest gift in the college's history, along with the public launch of a $50 million comprehensive campaign entitled “Reaching New Heights: The Campaign for McDaniel College.” Learn more at campaign.mcdaniel.edu.
McDaniel College has announced the largest gift in college history along with the unveiling of the public phase of a $50 million comprehensive capital and operational campaign in support of McDaniel’s current strategic plan.
Both announcements were made during the college’s Founders Society Gala held on campus on Friday, Oct. 10. Nearly 200 members of the McDaniel community were in attendance, including trustees, alumni, and parents, as well as business and community partners.
A landmark estate gift of approximately $15 million from the late Jonas Eshelman '50 marks the largest in the college’s history. It will be used to establish an endowment that will fund initiatives to enhance academic excellence and support the college’s unrestricted priorities. This includes a new Endowed Professorship in Computational Innovation and Emerging Technologies, made possible by a $2 million matching grant from the Maryland E-Nnovation Initiative Fund (MEIF), as well as upgrades to classrooms and lab spaces.
McDaniel Board of Trustees Chair Bruce Preston '75, McDaniel President Julia Jasken, student Nicki James, and the Green Terror pose with an oversized check
Eshelman, who died in 2023 at the age of 95, grew up in Hagerstown, Maryland, and served in the U.S. Navy before enrolling at what was then Western Maryland College, where he majored in Economics. He later moved to Baltimore, where he worked as a retail business manager and real estate investor, before retiring in West Palm Beach, Florida. He also was an avid landscape oil painter.
“This record-breaking gift will have a profound impact on the educational experience of our students. A portion of this gift has been designated to significantly focus on academic excellence — both now and into the future,” McDaniel College President Julia Jasken said. “It demonstrates what is possible when donors believe in the power of a McDaniel education. The Eshelman gift also gives us tremendous momentum as we head into the public phase of our ‘Reaching New Heights’ campaign.”
The public launch of a comprehensive campaign, “Reaching New Heights: The Campaign for McDaniel College,” which aims to raise $50 million by May 31, 2028, was also announced by President Jasken during the event. To date, over $40 million in gifts and pledges has been received towards the goal.
The campaign includes capital and operational support of initiatives outlined in the college’s strategic plan, which was endorsed by the McDaniel College Board of Trustees in 2022. Specific priorities include the creation of spaces for academic excellence and cultivating campus life and community belonging.
Examples of campaign projects that are already underway include construction of state-of-the-art facilities for new programs in nursing, Occupational Therapy, Speech-Language Pathology, and Early Childhood Education, new outdoor track and field facility and locker rooms for McDaniel student-athletes, experiential learning grants to increase student access to student-faculty summer research, and community partnerships through the Carroll County Scholars and McDaniel Women’s Leadership Network.
In addition to philanthropic priorities, the campaign looks to increase engagement through community and career connections, such as attending college events, mentoring current students, sharing jobs or internships, and referring future students to McDaniel.
“The goals for the ‘Reaching New Heights’ campaign are bold, and they should be. This is a defining moment for McDaniel. Our students are full of potential, and our aspirations for them — and for the college — should match that promise. Every gift to the campaign demonstrates how deeply our community believes in McDaniel’s vision for the future and in the students whose lives are transformed here every day,” President Jasken said.
This is the college’s first major fundraising campaign since “Carpe Diem” in 2009 under the college’s eighth president, Joan Develin Coley, which surpassed its fundraising goal and set new records of support from trustees, alumni, faculty, and staff.
“Reaching New Heights: The Campaign for McDaniel College” is co-chaired by McDaniel College Board of Trustee member Debbie Dale Seidel '84, and her husband, Ethan Seidel, professor emeritus of Economics and Business Administration.
