In late March, Le Moyne College, specifically the College of Arts and Sciences, received a $12 million donation provided by Le Moyne alumnus Dr. James Carroll and his wife, Mary Carroll, marking it as the biggest alum donation in the entirety of the college’s history.
With this donation, the College of Arts and Sciences was promptly named Dr. James J. ‘66 and Mary A. Carroll College of Arts and Sciences, with $6 million going towards student scholarships, $ 4 million going to professorships, and the remainder of $2 million will go to towards advancements at the William J. Bosch, S.J., Teaching and Learning Center. With a big donation, it prompts the question on not only why the Carrolls donated, but how that money came about and why it is going towards those specific areas.
In a recent conversation, Dr. Carroll recalled that he was born in Binghamton, where he grew up with another brother who was six years older. During this time, Dr.Caroll stated he lived a simple life, attending a Catholic school with a graduating class of 44 students and working as a paper boy in downtown Binghamton. His mom was a stay-at-home mom, while his dad served as a railroad worker.
In ‘62, Dr. Carroll graduated from high school and a couple weeks later, on July 5th, Dr. Carroll stated his father passed away, leaving him and his mother to figure out how James would pay for schooling at Le Moyne, the school he wished to attend. Luckily, with Carroll going to work for the city of Binghamton and his mom selling stocks, they could hand in a $900 check to cover the whole year of school. Dr. Carroll reflected on this moment, stating that this check was so big and no one ever paid for the whole year up front, that the main office had to send him to Father Mitchell, the vice-president of finance at the time, to figure out what to exactly do with the check.
Originally, Dr.Carroll majored in math at Le Moyne, but he realized math was not his strong suit. From there, he would switch his major to be a dual in history and political science. In this major, he met the professors Ed Conan, Joe Curran, and Anthony Bourscaren.
Ed Conan was a professor in history and – as Dr. Caroll mentioned – it was his jump start for a love in constitutional law, where Conan would repeat that the “exciting thing about constitutional law is that the question never change, but the answers do!” Dr.Carroll also saw the stark change of political philosophies from both Curran and Bouscaren. Dr.Carroll noted that Curran was a professor in history, where his liberal ideas would bleed into his love for FDR. When Dr.Carroll would walk across the hall to his next class, he would be presented with Bouscaren, a professor in political science.
Here, Bouscraen had more conservative ideas on the United States, with a firm belief that communists were lurking around every corner. Dr.Carroll reflects on this time with great affection, saying the one thing he always loved about Le Moyne was the “different perspectives.” Le Moyne always made it a point to hire different people with different experiences and viewpoints, which he thought was beyond beneficial.
To continue paying for school, Dr.Caroll mentioned that he would work around the clock to make this possible. He worked for the city of Syracuse – where he always needed to find a way to get there, and then would ride two buses to get back back. Working would slowly get easier as the Le Moyne dining hall opened up, where he would snag the role of dishwasher almost immediately.
To continue saving money, Dr.Carroll and his old dorm roommate would rent their own room from a couple in their 60s just off the college campus, where they only had to pay $1 a night, a complete steal to paying room and board. Around this time, another momentous memory in his life would take place; meeting his future wife, Mary. During this time, Dr. Carroll stated he had a girlfriend, Joanne, and the couple would go on a double date with Mary and her then-boyfriend. One night, when Dr.Carroll got off the phone with Mary, he remembers his landlord made this point: She said, “You seem to like Mary more than Joanne.”
After graduating from Le Moyne, Dr.Carroll would continue to pursue his masters degree in social studies education at Syracuse University then his PhD in social sciences at Maxwell College. During his teaching career at Westhill High School from 1973-1979, he would create Project Legal, a program designed to aid students’ problem-solving skills and knowledge of the U.S. legal/judicial system. It was in 1979 when project legal was validated and this was when he also left Westhill
Dr. Carroll said It wasn’t long before project legal reached across 34 states and he was able to relocate the program to Syracuse University. As Dr. Carroll stated, there were many risks in developing this program. Since this program depended on funding, if they could no longer continue getting money, he wouldn’t have a job and be able to support his wife and seven children. Dr. Carroll was able to stay at Syracuse, working on his project until his retirement in 2024
For Dr.Carroll, the size of his gift to Le Moyne, he said, was based on pure luck and good investments. In 2016, Dr.Carroll mentioned that he invested in NVIDIA, an artificial intelligence computing company, and as the stock numbers kept getting better, he kept investing. Later, he received an email that the stock was overvalued and he needed to pull out.
Many people in their later years might suggest you stick to safe and secure investments, but Dr.Carroll loved the risk, so with a decided and level-headed mind, he stuck with the stock – leading to the huge donation. When asked why donate to Le Moyne, his answer was simple: To give the help he would have wanted when going to school at Le Moyne and provide scholarships to the students in need.
