O.C. Businessman Donates $30 Million to Alma Mater
RemedyTemp Inc. founder and chairman Robert E. McDonough Sr., who fell “in love at first sight” with Georgetown University when he first stepped onto its campus half a century ago, on Wednesday donated $30 million to its business school.
The gift, which will be paid in installments over several years, is the largest the school has ever received, and the third-largest amount ever given to an American business school.
In return, the Georgetown University School of Business will be renamed after McDonough, who was on the campus of the Washington, D.C., university Wednesday to celebrate “Bob McDonough Day.”
“I just had a good feeling about Georgetown,” McDonough said, explaining why he showered his largess on the university. “It touched my soul when I went there, when I first walked through the gates.”
McDonough, 76, of Capistrano Beach, founded the temporary employment service in 1965 and built it into a behemoth of 230 offices worldwide with annual billings of $500 million.
The Aliso Viejo-based company went public in July 1996, and McDonough and his family reaped about $19.5 million in the offering. His 28% stake in RemedyTemp is worth $26.3 million.
McDonough graduated from the Georgetown School of Foreign Service in 1949 and has maintained close ties to the school ever since, serving on various boards including the board of regents. He is on the board of directors.
He has given locally as well, including $500,000 to the Mission Elementary School in San Juan Capistrano.
McDonough’s first donation to Georgetown was $5 in 1949. As his fortunes grew, so did his gifts.
He gave $1.5 million in honor of his late wife, Elsa Carlson McDonough, and $2 million more in the name of his second wife, Simone Ballandras McDonough.
“Thank God I only had two wives,” McDonough joked during a telephone interview Wednesday. “Otherwise I’d go to the poorhouse, I guess.”
McDonough said he has been planning to make this latest gift for some time, and told the university about it six months ago. A few weeks ago, McDonough said, he was notified that Oct. 7, 1998, would be designated “Bob McDonough Day.”
“I couldn’t believe it,” he said.
But renaming the business school was his idea, McDonough admits. “Robert Emmett McDonough School of Business, that’s got a nice ring to it,” he said.
The gift set off a string of festivities on the campus.
On Wednesday, celebrants first gathered indoors for speeches and then moved to a large tent. McDonough mingled with students before heading to a private lunch, and later to a dinner in his honor.
The entrepreneur’s close friends and family members joined him for Wednesday’s festivities. His grandson is a sophomore at Georgetown and his granddaughter holds two degrees from the university.
McDonough will continue to be honored throughout the week, concluding with a black-tie dinner hosted by the university’s president Saturday night.
McDonough’s ties to Georgetown date to the 1940s, when he attended evening classes at the school while working the midnight shift as a U.S. Capitol Police officer.
The Washington Post contributed to this report.
