Caltech receives $17.4 million gift

Jill Perry

Caltech will receive an estimated $17.4 million as a beneficiary of the estate of businessman William Hacker ’31.

Hacker, who died in February, was a generous donor to the Institute during his lifetime and had established the Social Science Experimental Laboratory on campus. He directed a large portion of his Caltech bequest toward the field of economics, including the establishment of the William D. Hacker Professorship in Economics and Management. Another significant part of the gift is designated for the biological sciences, some of which will be applied toward construction of the Broad Center for the Biological Sciences. The gift also establishes a $1 million student loan fund.

Raised in Monrovia, Hacker attended Caltech during the Depression and earned money for tuition ($80 a year at the time) by holding a variety of jobs, including parking cars at the Rose Bowl. He enjoyed telling about how he once parked boxer Jack Dempsey’s yellow Rolls Royce and got a $20 tip. Hacker received his BS in mechanical engineering in 1931 and, at the urging of a Caltech faculty member, attended Harvard Business School, apparently the first Caltech graduate to do so.

During World War II he served under General Robert Johnson and, as a result, became a longtime stockholder in Johnson & Johnson, among many investments. Hacker began his career as vice president of sales for the American Pencil Company, one of the first companies to sell ballpoint pens in the U.S. Later, he became president of the American distributorship for Elna sewing machines.
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