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Philanthropist John N. Stern '39, one of Oberlin's most generous benefactors, is accustomed to giving gifts. This time, however, a gift has been given in his honor.

The Ben J. Altheimer Charitable Foundation, with which Stern had a working relationship for five decades, has donated $100,000 to Oberlin to endow a scholarship fund known as the John N. Stern Scholars Fund.

The foundation has established similar endowed funds at four colleges within the University of Arkansas, also to honor Stern. Four gifts totaling $400,000 were donated to the schools of Agriculture and Law at UA at Fayetteville; the School of Law at UA at Little Rock; and the School of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Human Sciences at UA at Pine Bluff.

Scholarship recipients at all the schools are to be known as Stern Scholars. Eligible students must demonstrate financial need, reside in Arkansas, and "demonstrate John N. Stern's attributes of intelligence, initiative, and enthusiasm for learning," according to the terms of the gift.

During the ceremonies held for the dedication of the Oberlin Science Center last October, John Stern '39 posed with biology Professor Dick Levin outside the lab that he dedicated in Levin's honor.

A 1939 Oberlin graduate in economics, Stern graduated cum laude in 1942 from Harvard Law School and then served three years in the Army Air Corps during World War II. He joined the trust department of the American National Bank in 1957 and was appointed vice president of the probate division soon after, a position he held until his retirement in 1972.

A native of Chicago, Stern became involved with the Altheimer Foundation through family connections. Ben J. Altheimer, who established the foundation, was an attorney who lived in Pine Bluff before moving in 1910 to Chicago, where he became a close friend of Stern's parents. Stern is one of five original trustees of the foundation appointed by Altheimer, a position from which he retired in 1998. When Altheimer died in 1946, Stern was the executor of his estate and became responsible for selecting successor trustees for the foundation.

The Altheimer Foundation traditionally restricts its support to institutions within the state of Arkansas, but with this gift to Oberlin, it went beyond the state borders. The John N. Stern Scholars Fund honors not only Stern's devotion to Ben J. Altheimer and to his foundation, but also Stern's long-standing interest in Oberlin.

An Oberlin College trustee from 1975 to 1988, Stern is now an honorary trustee. He helped organize and is a charter member of the John Frederick Oberlin Society, the College's recognition society for major contributors; he also was that group's first president. In 1988, during his 50th class reunion, Oberlin awarded Stern an honorary doctor of humanities degree.

Stern's generosity to Oberlin is evident across the campus. An avid collector of art, he has donated numerous works to the Allen Memorial Art Museum, where he is a founding member of the visiting committee and where a gallery bears his name. He supported the renovation of the Milton L. Fisher Art Auditorium in the Art Building.

A former soccer player, Stern was a founding member of the Heisman Club and was named to its Hall of Fame in 1996. A major supporter of the Heisman Club Field House, Stern endowed Oberlin's North Coast Athletic Conference Scholar-Athlete Award. Most recently he demonstrated his interest in Oberlin athletics by contributing to the Don Hunsinger Men's and Women's Intercollegiate Tennis funds.

Stern has also been a supporter of the sciences at Oberlin. He is the namesake of the John N. Stern Merit Scholarship in the Natural Sciences, as well as the sponsor of a biology faculty research laboratory in Oberlin's Science Center, dedicated in 2002.

Since 1946, the Altheimer Foundation has donated millions of dollars to charities and programs across Arkansas, primarily in the areas of education, medicine, arts, sciences, literature, law, and government. The foundation has a special interest in the town of Altheimer. Named for Ben J. Altheimer's father and uncle, who donated land to the railroad so the town could establish a depot, the town has about 1,100 residents, and nearly 40 percent of its families live below the poverty level, according to 2000 census figures.

Stern's contributions to the Altheimer Foundation have been considerable, according to John Selig, a director of the foundation.

"Although the Declaration of Trust creating the foundation did not really establish a chairman, John Stern stepped forward, as is his nature, and assumed responsibility," says Selig. "For over 50 years, John acted as the de facto chairman of the foundation, guiding it, directing it, leading it to success after success, always being mindful of the vision of the foundation. As a result, John dedicated a substantial portion of his life to ensure that the foundation was successful. Under his stewardship, the foundation has given in excess of $10 million to Arkansas charitable recipients."

"Ben was a very civic-minded man, and I had a lot of financial and moral responsibility for the foundation. The foundation has been a major player in charitable activities in Arkansas for many years," Stern acknowledges. "But I would never have asked them to do this."

In addition to his work at Oberlin, Stern is an active life trustee of the Music Associates of Aspen. He established the Bumpy Stevenson Scholarship, which is designated for Oberlin students, at the Aspen Music Festival and School. Stern is a member of the board of trustees and the visiting committee of the Smart Museum of the University of Chicago, and he is a former board member of the Ravinia Festival in the Chicago area.

"John Stern exemplifies the best of philanthropy," says Altheimer Foundation director Selig. "He is one of those talented people who has an interest in helping a community and its inhabitants have a better life so that they can, by the same token, go on and help others who are less fortunate."