Chestnut Hill Academy receives $2.2 million gift

Chestnut Hill Academy has received $2.2 million dollars from former student Cyrus H. Nathan. Nathan graduated from CHA in 1930. It is the second largest bequest in the school’s 150-year history.

The money will establish The Cyrus H. Nathan ’30 Distinguished Faculty Fund and Awards that will fund six faculty chairs in each of the five major academic fields—English, History, Language, Math and Science—and a sixth in Music and Art.

Nathan spent his career in the advertising industry as an executive at several agencies. During World War II, he worked in Nelson Rockefeller’s Office of Inter-American Affairs, organized to counter the growing Nazi influence in Latin America, and traveled to Chile to broadcast pro-American radio programs.

Nathan only attended the private school for two years but according to a CHA statement released yesterday Nathan said it was Chestnut Hill Academy that gave him the confidence that drove his success.