‘C’ Student Gives Alma Mater $100 Million

Gordon Y.S. Wu, who got through Princeton University with “gentleman’s C’s” and went on to become one of Hong Kong’s richest developers, is donating $100 million to his alma mater.

The donation, which goes toward Princeton’s engineering school, is the largest ever for the Ivy League university and one of the biggest in the history of U.S. education.

Wu, whose Hopewell Holdings Ltd. has vast interests in China and Southeast Asia, received his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in 1958. Wu said he decided in his junior year that he would make a million dollars, his mediocre grades notwithstanding.

“I was what they call a gentleman’s C student,” he said.

He has already given more than $12 million to Princeton, where two of his four children have gone to school.