Donor Stories: Dan Meyers
Meyers Honors the Memory of a Family Friend and Educator with the Curry School's Largest Ever Gift
Boston native Anthony D. "Wally" Bavaro played football for the San Francisco 49ers in the 1960s until a knee injury ended his days on the gridiron. He then embarked on a forty-year career as a history teacher and coach in the public schools of Malden and Chelsea, Massachusetts. Bavaro died in 2002.
"He was committed to teaching kids in some pretty tough, inner-city schools," says Daniel Meyers, chair of the Curry School Foundation.
He credits Bavaro, a family friend, with helping to shape his educational beliefs. "He had plenty of opportunities to move into administration, to become a principal, but he didn't want to leave the classroom, where he believed he was really needed."
Meyers committed $22 million to Curry in 2004. With this gift, the school's largest ever and the second largest to an American school of education, he chose to name the school's new facility for Wally Bavaro, a largely unheralded public school educator. Meyers believes that the Curry School responds to what he calls "real needs," much as Bavaro did.
"Curry is out there developing better ways to help at-risk students' and preparing teachers who can deal with their issues."
Meyers, a Boston businessman, is the Chairman of Sextant Holdings LLC, a private investment entity. Previously, he co-founded and served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The First Marblehead Corporation, a NYSE listed education finance company, which to date has provided roughly $10 billion in assistance to students in the US.