Chancellor Names Robert D. and Nancy M. Gordon Founders Room

By Joe Peters

For most of his career, Robert D. Gordon has played an integral role in the life and success of the University of Massachusetts system. With the opening of UMass Boston’s campus center, his service and generosity, which includes a recent gift of $100,000, will be recognized with the naming of the Robert D. and Nancy M. Gordon Founders Room, a prominent meeting space in the new 330,000-square-foot facility.

“This is going to be the receiving place on campus,” Gordon says of the new center. “It will be the place where students and visitors congregate. It’s a different kind of structure for the campus.”

Gordon’s affiliation with UMass began in the early 1940s when he enrolled in Massachusetts State College, now UMass Amherst. While there, he met his future wife, Nancy, and both were on hand in 1947, when the college officially became the University of Massachusetts.

Graduating in 1948 and then earning a law degree from Boston University, Gordon remained very connected to UMass and the state’s political scene. These two areas merged in the early 1960s when Gordon, then serving as a UMass Trustee, became one of the major proponents of creating a Boston campus for the state university. In June of 1964, he stood behind Governor Endicott “Chub” Peabody as the governor signed the bill creating UMass Boston.

“The purpose was to establish an urban campus, something other than what Boston University or Northeastern University had to offer,” said Gordon, explaining the vision of creating a diverse state university system much like the University of California system.

While his tenure as a trustee ended in 1979, Gordon still remains connected to the university, offering both advice and financial support. He says UMass Boston has done well following its original mission of being a quality alternative to the many private colleges in Boston.

“After watching it now for nearly 40 years, UMass Boston has progressed very nicely,” he says. “I think for those of us involved in its creation, you could say we’ve been very pleased.”

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