Couples celebrating their 65th wedding anniversary are rare enough; those marking the milestone by giving away almost $1 million may be unique.
Peter and Elizabeth Tower decided that instead of buying each other gifts, they would commemorate their 65th by giving $65,000 to each of 15 different nonprofit organizations - a total of $975,000.
Five of the organizations are on Cape Ann, where daughter Mollie Byrnes lives. They are the Gloucester Education Foundation, the Rockport Education Foundation, Pathways for Children, the Rockport Chamber Music Festival and the Schooner Adventure.
Five of the other groups are on Martha's Vineyard, where daughter Cynthia Doyle lives, and the rest are in the Buffalo area, where the Towers live.
The Towers established the Peter and Elizabeth C. Tower Foundation in 1990 to give grants, typically for educational causes, totalling more than $2.3 million per year, according to the foundation. Byrnes said the grant process is rigorous.
"But in this case," she said, "with my parents about to celebrate their 65th wedding anniversary, they decided to give personal money and they wanted to give five gifts in the areas of the family."
The Towers, who are in their mid-80s, married in the summer of 1942 after meeting as students at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. Peter Tower is a retired businessman who turned his grandfather's small firm into a multi-billion-dollar operation; Elizabeth Tower is an artist. They were not available for comment.
While the gifts were unrestricted donations, the family requested the money be used for specific purposes. For the two education foundations, for example, the Towers asked the donations be used to establish an endowment to support elementary school literacy programs.
"One of their three main goals is education," said Byrnes, a Rockport resident. "The family cares about literacy because if you are illiterate, you can't get very far these days."
Edward Shoucair, a founder of the Gloucester Education Foundation, will work with Superintendent Christopher Farmer to create a literacy endowment fund. The organization was formed two years ago to help the School Department preserve certain enrichment programs and start new ones.
"The schools have very ambitious goals for literacy," Shoucair said. "This is certainly a major step towards helping us support those literacy goals."
Peter and Elizabeth Tower decided that instead of buying each other gifts, they would commemorate their 65th by giving $65,000 to each of 15 different nonprofit organizations - a total of $975,000.
Five of the organizations are on Cape Ann, where daughter Mollie Byrnes lives. They are the Gloucester Education Foundation, the Rockport Education Foundation, Pathways for Children, the Rockport Chamber Music Festival and the Schooner Adventure.
Five of the other groups are on Martha's Vineyard, where daughter Cynthia Doyle lives, and the rest are in the Buffalo area, where the Towers live.
The Towers established the Peter and Elizabeth C. Tower Foundation in 1990 to give grants, typically for educational causes, totalling more than $2.3 million per year, according to the foundation. Byrnes said the grant process is rigorous.
"But in this case," she said, "with my parents about to celebrate their 65th wedding anniversary, they decided to give personal money and they wanted to give five gifts in the areas of the family."
The Towers, who are in their mid-80s, married in the summer of 1942 after meeting as students at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. Peter Tower is a retired businessman who turned his grandfather's small firm into a multi-billion-dollar operation; Elizabeth Tower is an artist. They were not available for comment.
While the gifts were unrestricted donations, the family requested the money be used for specific purposes. For the two education foundations, for example, the Towers asked the donations be used to establish an endowment to support elementary school literacy programs.
"One of their three main goals is education," said Byrnes, a Rockport resident. "The family cares about literacy because if you are illiterate, you can't get very far these days."
Edward Shoucair, a founder of the Gloucester Education Foundation, will work with Superintendent Christopher Farmer to create a literacy endowment fund. The organization was formed two years ago to help the School Department preserve certain enrichment programs and start new ones.
"The schools have very ambitious goals for literacy," Shoucair said. "This is certainly a major step towards helping us support those literacy goals."
Schooner Adventure will use the donation to buy a new set of sails, part of a project to rehabilitate the vessel, which is docked in Gloucester Harbor.
"The schooner has been under restoration for many years now," said Martin Krugman, president of Schooner Adventure. "We're just completing restoration of the hull and the deck. We're now beginning the work of outfitting the boat for sailing, and one of the key components of that is a new suit of sails."
Krugman said the schooner group hopes to have her ready to sail by the summer 2009 and will use the vessel for education and community programs.
"There is education on the schooner because they'll provide information on maritime history and about the fishing industry," Byrnes said.
Thomas Burger, chairman of the Rockport Chamber Music Festival's board of directors, said the donation will go toward the group's new performance center.
"They are incredibly generous people, and 65 years of marriage is most unusual," Burger said. "Although I must admit, my parents are on 63."
Byrnes said the Rockport Chamber Music Festival also has an educational component: bringing in elementary school children to learn about music.
Peter Tower, after serving in the Air Force in Texas and Europe, joined his grandfather's customhouse broker partnership, C.J. Tower and Sons, as a clerk and stayed on with the company for decades.
By 1986, the small business had grown to one processing $45 billion in merchandise. He sold the business to McGraw-Hill, which later sold it to Federal Express.
Elizabeth Tower became a painter after college, according to the Tower Foundation, and has sold more than 500 paintings and collages.
Staff writer Jonathan L'Ecuyer contributed to this report.
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