Hart Family - Ourfolk

(Farmington-AP, Oct. 4, 2000 10:00 AM) _ Miss Porter's School has received a $6.1 million gift, by far the largest gift in the 157-year-old private school's history.

'It's extremely exciting,' M. Burch Tracy Ford, head of the school for girls said. 'It's an eye to the future. It helps to ensure the future of the school'

The unrestricted gift comes from the estate of William D. Hacker, a businessman who lived in California. His wife, the late Barbara Lang Hacker, graduated from Miss Porter's in 1929.

Mr. Hacker was a stock-market investor who worked as president of the distribution division of Elna, a sewing-machine manufacturer. He received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Caltech in 1931.

Of his bequest, $9.4 million was earmarked for Caltech's biology department; $8 million to help build the Broad Center for the Biological Sciences, a research facility that is expected to be completed in 2002; and $1.4 million for unrestricted use. In addition, Mr. Hacker designated $7 million for economics programs; $3 million for general support; $2.5 million to endow a professorship in economics and management and create a research fund for use by the professor; and $1.5 million for unrestricted support. Mr. Hacker also gave $1 million to create a loan fund to help students pay tuition and living expenses.

The university will receive the remaining $600,000 from Mr. Hacker's estate this year. He died in 2000 at age 91.

Thanks to the generous bequest of William D. Hacker and Barbara Lang Hacker, the Harwich Conservation Trust was able to purchase and preserve forever 8.7 acres of wooded pondshore offering views of sun-spackled waters through tall pines and oaks. In their honor, the woodland, wetland, and 600 feet of shoreline on Katie's Pond was named the William D. & Barbara Lang Hacker Wildlife Sanctuary.

(South Harwich, Conn)

The Pilgrim Church Steeple and its light is the Harwich Port landmark for both the community and mariners on Nantucket Sound.

Lighting the Pilgrim Church Steeple was originally funded in memory of Charles Detwiller, Jr. by his family. William D. Hacker perpetually endows its maintenance in memory of his wife, Barbara Lang Hacker, who loved Harwich and its waters.