Students and alumni will enjoy a broader array of career advising and exploration programs, thanks to a significant deferred gift from Brett S. Harwood ’71 and his wife, Margie. The Harwood Endowment for the Office of Student and Post-Graduate Development (OSPGD) will support all aspects of OSPGD’s innovative programs and annual budget, as its employees provide career advising, leadership development and networking opportunities.
“My view is that college isn’t only an opportunity to advance your education,” Brett Harwood said. “It also is an opportunity to enhance life skills — essential communication abilities, financial acumen, the ability to plan your career goals — and OSPGD does a tremendous job of assisting F&M students in those endeavors. Supporting that is natural for us because the College helped me succeed in many ways after I graduated.”
This is not the first gift to OSPGD provided by the Harwoods. Their lead gift in 2014 enabled the transformation of the old Appel Infirmary on Hartman Green into the modern facility that now houses OSPGD and the Ware Institute for Civic Engagement. That building opened in 2016. In 2012, Brett established the Harwood Leadership Seminar, which brings together small cohorts of student leaders and student-athletes to coach critical life skills, including leadership styles and values, communication, team-building, resilience and creativity.
Brett Harwood was a member of the Board of Trustees from 2008 to 2018 and is currently a member of Leadership Council and the Steering Committee for the Now to Next capital campaign. He earned F&M’s Alumni Medal in 2018, given by the Alumni Association Board of Directors in recognition of sustained, distinguished and outstanding service to the College. Harwood is principal and co-founder of Harwood Properties of Jersey City, N.J., and Boston, as well as the founder of Park Equity and chairman of Welcome Parking, both of Jersey City.
Harwood majored in government at F&M and earned his juris doctorate from the Temple University School of Law in 1974. He and Margie live in New Jersey and have two children.
Harwood recalled that career services during his time as a student “consisted mainly of a bulletin board with 3-by-5-inch index cards containing an announcement of an on-campus interview or a contact phone number to call at a company if a student was looking for a job. We’re light years ahead of that now. OSPGD’s services are a big part of that and so is F&M’s energized True Blue network. I’m so impressed with how many alumni and parents are willing to assist students in their next steps.”
To learn how to craft your own legacy at Franklin & Marshall College, contact Mary Ann M. Cooke, J.D., '90 at 717-358-4821 or mcooke@fandm.edu.