Kaitlyn Richards ‘29
Chief News Editor
The College of the Holy Cross has received a $10 million gift from alumnus Stephen P. Skinner, one of the largest gifts in the College’s recent history, to support endowed professorships and student scholarships.
The gift, announced by the College on Monday, Sept. 14, 2026, will provide $9 million to establish three endowed professorships, with $3 million dedicated to each position. The remaining $1 million will support scholarships for Holy Cross students.
Skinner, a longtime supporter of the College, previously served as a member of the College’s Board of Trustees and graduated from Holy Cross in 1977.
According to the press release from the Holy Cross Magazine, President Vincent D. Rougeau said the gift reflects Skinner’s commitment to the values that shaped his own Holy Cross experience.
“Stephen Skinner’s extraordinary generosity reflects the very best of what it means to be a Holy Cross graduate,” Rougeau said. “Through this gift, he is not only honoring the mentors and experiences that shaped his own education, but ensuring that future generations of students will have access to the same transformative academic opportunities. We are profoundly grateful for Stephen’s continued partnership and his enduring commitment to academic excellence and student access at Holy Cross.”
Along with the announcement of the gift, the College named Victor Matheson the Dorothea A. and Irwin J. Skinner Professor of Economics. In an interview with The Spire, Matheson discussed the significance of endowed professorships and what additional resources can mean for faculty and students at Holy Cross.
“This is a huge honor,” Matheson said. “Holy Cross only gives about one of these a year, and it really is kind of a lifetime achievement award for hard work over a 20-year-plus career.”
Matheson explained that the professorship would provide additional resources for his work, the economics department, and the College as a whole.
“This gift helps the department in particular. For example, it comes with additional research funds that I can use for data collection or for conference travel. The other thing it does from a grander piece here is by taking my salary off the budget and putting it into this endowment, which frees up funds that can be used all over the campus. It can be used to hire a new person in economics, for example. It can be used for student services; it can be used for financial aid.
“You know, kind of anytime, economists say money’s fungible, which means it can be moved around. But basically, anytime someone makes a generous gift, like Mr. Skinner, that allows, that obviously pays for me, but it allows funds to be freed up for all sorts of uses.”
Looking ahead, Matheson said, “I hope to keep doing the sort of research that I have been doing for the last 20 years, which is highly public-policy-centered.”
His research has included stadium financing and the economics of major sporting events, including the World Cup. He has also studied gambling, an area he said has become increasingly significant with the legalization of sports betting and the expansion of online betting, prediction markets, lotteries and casino gaming.
“These are going to be huge topics moving forward, and I look forward to doing these for another 15 years,” Matheson said.
“It’s always a journey. This is not an endpoint. This is a, this is nice recognition along the way, and I look forward to being able to continue to do work for a long time coming,” said Matheson. “This recognition is not just me either. I have had at least ten different co-authors among Holy Cross faculty, roughly another twenty co-authors among Holy Cross students who have worked in the summer research program as well. A part of this goes out to every single one of my co-authors, you know, here at Holy Cross, plus at other institutions around the country and around the world.”
Skinner’s gift will establish three endowed professorships and provide scholarship funding for students, creating resources intended to extend beyond the individual recipients. For Matheson, the gift represents not only recognition of his own career, but an investment in the faculty, students, and research that make up the broader Holy Cross community.
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