Union College in Schenectady has received one of the largest gifts in its history, a $5 million bequest from a 1932 Union graduate who became a manager at General Electric Co.
The college said Monday William Denison Williams, who died Oct. 15, 2005, in Doylestown, Pa., left Union $5 million. The gift was unrestricted. Union said it will use the money to endow two chairs in Williams' name, though the academic designation has not yet been determined.
Williams received a bachelor's of science in electrical engineering from Union and later studied at Duke and Cornell. At GE, he was manager of the Magnetics Section and he worked in the engineering lab.
He retired in 1954. He was 95 when he died.
Williams left an estate of more than $20 million. He divided the bulk of the money between Union College, Piedmont College in Georgia, and the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pa.
The largest gift in the college's history was the $20 million given in November 2002 by John Wold, a geologist and former U.S. Congressman from Casper, Wyo., and his wife Jane.