Barbara Moore and Jack VanWoerkom

Barbara earned an MIT bachelor’s degree in civil engineer-ing in 1975 and a JD from Harvard Law School in 1978. Jack earned a bachelor’s degree in management from MIT Sloan in 1975 and a JD from Boston University Law School in 1978. Both began their law careers at Hale & Dorr. Barbara has spent her career in private practice in Boston, focusing on intellectual-property litigation. After stints at real estate and industrial firms, Jack served as general counsel at Staples and, later, Home Depot. He retired in 2011. For fun, Barbara and Jack travel extensively and enjoy spending time with their twin baby granddaughters.

Jack: “We make gifts to MIT of unrestricted funds so that MIT, as a whole, will flourish. The Institute has done a great job of analyzing what it needs to do to maintain its prominence in the world, and that gives us confidence that they’ve got the right plan. We believe that the United States needs more scientists and engineers to support innovation and expand the economy. Giving unrestricted funds allows the Institute to allocate its resources among competing needs to best support and encourage important work in science and engineering.”

Barbara: “We have faith in the executive leadership of MIT and in its commitment to MIT’s leadership in the world. We feel that those leaders are in a better position than we are to decide how MIT’s resources are deployed. This is a good time to make an unrestricted gift because of the financial uncertainties in the country and the world. MIT needs to be nimble to react to needs as they arise, so unrestricted funds are particularly important.”

Please consider your own gift to MIT.
For information, contact Rob Scott: 617-253-3394; rscott@mit.edu. Or visit giving.mit.edu.