A gift arrives ... 20 years later

Robert Collins passed away in 1991, leaving part of his estate to the Department of Mathematics at MIT. This generous gift was made even more remarkable in ways that bear telling now.

Collins, in the words of his good friend Peter Holmstrom, was a “whiz kid who became a very successful investor.” He was not a mathematician: he never attended any college or university and had no formal connection to MIT.

But he had a lifelong interest in mathematics and a deep respect for MIT. The gift was made at the time when David Benney was department head, but it did not come to MIT immediately. Collins stipulated that Peter Holmstrom would manage a trust holding the funds, releasing only a portion of the income to the Mathematics Department. This proved to be a fortuitous move: Holmstrom’s investments have since multiplied the fund’s value several times over. In the meanwhile, the Mathematics Department used the income to establish a rotating “Collins Scholarship,” which provides one faculty member with a discretionary account to support his or her research for a five-year period. Currently David Vogan holds this honor.

Mike Sipser visited Peter Holmstrom a couple of years ago at his home north of San Francisco. “As far as I know,” Mike says, “none of our faculty ever knew Robert Collins. So I wanted to meet his friend Peter, who was managing these important resources for us, and give Peter a chance to learn a bit about our department and how these funds are helping us.”

This past fall, Peter decided to turn the funds over to MIT. The total value of the fund exceeds $3,000,000. We are deeply grateful to Robert Collins and to Peter Holmstrom for this wonderful gift.

For information on making a gift to the Mathematics Department, please contact Senior Director of Development for Mathematics Erin McGrath Tribble at or 617-452-2807.

This was originally published in the 2011 Integral