Billionaire Writes $50 Million Love Letter To His Indiana Hometown - Forbes

Bill Stone has been pumping wealth into Evansville’s aesculapian assemblage to revitalize its downtown and make caller jobs. He’s hoping different philanthropists from tiny cities travel his lead.

_{By John Hyatt}

Bill Stone has lived successful Naples, Florida since 2012, and earlier that successful Connecticut from 1979 to 2011, but helium doesn’t privation immoderate disorder astir wherever he’s from: Evansville, a mid-sized metropolis successful confederate Indiana that is nestled against the Ohio River, crossed from Kentucky.

“One of the things I respect astir radical is erstwhile they cognize who they are and they cognize wherever they travel from,” said Stone successful a caller Google Hangouts video interview. “I don’t respect radical who person been palmy and are from tiny towns, and don’t privation to enactment similar they’re from there. I find that disingenuous.”

Stone, 67, did good for himself aft leaving Evansville successful 1974. He studied concern and accounting astatine Marquette University, past roseate done the ranks astatine large 4 accounting steadfast KPMG. In 1986, Stone founded SS&C Technologies, a publically traded fiscal bundle steadfast that helium inactive runs arsenic CEO. Stone is worthy an estimated $2.1 billion, acknowledgment to his 12.3% involvement successful the publically traded SS&C.

While Stone’s luck grew, Evansville shrank. The city’s population–140,000 successful 1970–was 116,000 past year. The city’s proximity to the 3,300-foot-wide Ohio River made it a determination manufacturing hub for the amended portion of the 20th century, but it’s been deed arsenic mill jobs moved overseas and young, college-educated radical moved to larger cities for work. Evansville’s downtown remains a gathering spot for large events, similar the yearly July 4 fireworks show successful the city’s riverfront park, but year-round commercialized enactment isn’t what it utilized to be.

Reversing that trend–or, astatine slightest helping to–has go a favored task for Stone and his woman Mary, 2 precocious schoolhouse sweethearts from Reitz Memorial connected Evansville’s eastbound side. Stone, who was skipper of his precocious school’s shot team, has fixed implicit $50 cardinal successful the past 5 years towards Evansville’s aesculapian probe and healthcare sectors successful the city’s downtown. He wants to revitalize the metropolis halfway and marque Evansville into a nationalist person successful younker psychiatric research.

“If you spell to immoderate large metropolis successful the country, you’ll spot that medicine and healthcare is simply a ample constituent of what made that city,” says Stone. “We’re trying to marque Evansville much sustainable,” helium adds, alternatively than giving the metropolis “one changeable of cash.”

Stone’s run began successful 2018, erstwhile helium gave $15 cardinal to the Health Science Center (now named the Stone Family Center for Health Sciences), a 145,000-square-foot installation shared by the University of Evansville, the University of Southern Indiana and the Indiana University School of Medicine. Stone’s wealth was divided among the 3 schools to enlarge their ain world programs: The University of Evansville grew its doc adjunct and carnal therapy degrees; the University of Southern Indiana expanded its occupational therapy and nursing capabilities; and the Indiana University School of Medicine established a brand-new residency programme for IU Medical School graduates successful Evansville.

“If you get a aesculapian halfway and commencement grooming students, [most] of those graduates enactment successful the area,” claims Stone, who besides gave $2.4 cardinal successful 2018 to physique a peculiar playground designed for children with sensory processing disorders astatine St. Vincent Evansville hospital. “You make a magnet for young agleam radical to travel to Evansville and go doctors and nurses, and you've truly created an motor for growth.”

Stone pledged his biggest gift past year: $34.2 million, with 20% paid upfront, to found the Mary O’Daniel Stone and Bill Stone Center for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, which is housed, of course, successful the Stone Family Center for Health Sciences. The halfway appointed its manager (a enlistee from the University of Texas) earlier this year. Now, it’s hiring further module and practicing psychiatrists to enactment with section young radical suffering from bipolar upset and different psychiatric illnesses.

Stone’s donation is besides backing the Center’s ambitious information water probe initiative, which plans to “draw from millions of diligent records crossed the United States” successful bid to “identify the astir effectual therapies and promising innovations” for kid psychiatric disorders, according to Indiana University.

Stone’s gifts are “very strategic,” says Tara Barney, CEO of the Evansville Regional Economic Partnership, who worked intimately with Stone and the universities to maximize his gifts’ impact. “He’s been precise wide that helium wants to enactment our portion wherever it tin beryllium transformational.”

In Evansville’s case, that means revitalizing the city’s downtown, wherever the Stone Center is located. “A precursor to finalizing his concern successful the aesculapian schoolhouse was making the determination to find it downtown,” says Barney. “There's inactive a batch much enactment successful what I telephone the suburban road corridors successful our community, and truthful this aesculapian schoolhouse coming down was a almighty connection to say, we're going to enactment much precocious wage jobs and much system stimulating initiatives successful this downtown.”

Stone hopes to complement Evansville’s existing beingness sciences industry. Pharmaceutical elephantine AstraZeneca employs astir 700 radical successful the city. Mead Johnson Nutrition, a shaper of babe look owned by multinational user goods conglomerate Reckitt, besides has a ample manufacturing and R&D beingness there. “We person a large aggregation of radical that person grooming successful biologic sciences and each the integrated sciences,” says Barney, “so we're good positioned to physique connected that.”

The Evansville Regional Economic Partnership is inactive conducting a survey connected the interaction of Stone’s giving, but Barney is encouraged by preliminary results she’s seeing: “We're having immoderate aboriginal occurrence successful having residents that implicit their grooming present enactment successful the greater region, and that evidently is simply a immense summation to our economy.”

Stone has besides brought jobs to Evansville successful his capableness arsenic a businessman. In 2011, SS&C Technologies, which is headquartered successful Windsor, Connecticut, opened an bureau successful Evansville that present employs 220 people, including accountants, concern professionals, bundle engineers, HR managers and selling teams. About a 4th of these employees moved determination from different cities oregon states, says Stone. Still it’s little than 1% of SS&C’s implicit 24,000 employees crossed 100 locations successful 40 countries.

Stone is not the archetypal Hoosier to grapple with his state's colonisation problem. Mitch Daniels, Indiana politician from 2005 to 2013, often spoke astir Indiana’s encephalon drain occupation portion successful office; successful his caller capableness arsenic president of Purdue University, Daniels launched a “Brain Gain” programme to incentivize Purdue alumni to determination backmost to Indiana. Population depletion problems person plagued Indiana and different Rust Belt states “since astatine slightest 1970,” according to Losing Our Minds: Brain Drain crossed the United States, a 2019 report from the U.S. Congressional Joint Economic Committee. In that study, Indiana ranked 9th successful presumption of states with the highest spread betwixt highly-educated leavers and stayers.

In Stone’s view, his activities successful Evansville should beryllium portion of a broader question among philanthropists and firm leaders to summation superior travel passim the country. Stone identifies the country’s diminution successful nationalist companies–from astir 5,500 successful 2000 to astir 4,000 successful 2020, per a McKinsey study–as a contributing origin to America’s geographic inequality. “Most tiny cities don't person highly paid lawyers and accountants, truthful [companies] can't spell nationalist due to the fact that you can't bash what the SEC wants,” helium says. “It's a stranglehold connected superior enactment successful tiny towns.”

“I deliberation concentrated wealthiness successful a fewer cities successful the United States is not a bully thing,” Stone adds. “It’s amended if wealthiness is dispersed retired crossed the country.”

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