Two men named George Peabody have been generous benefactors to the University of Georgia and neither were graduates of the institution.
The first George Peabody was a wealthy New England philanthropist who was interested in education in the South and established the Peabody Education Fund from which the University received $40,000. These funds were used to build the college of education, completed in 1913 and named for Peabody. The building today is home to the philosophy and religion departments.
The second benefactor by that name was George Foster Peabody who became one of the University’s major contributors. His association with UGA is an interesting story. It came about because he was a friend of a friend of then Chancellor Walter B. Hill.
Hill was Chancellor in 1901 when the University celebrated its Centennial.
It was a week-long occasion that featured a grand banquet and brought to Athens top educators and politicians from all over the state and nation.
The principal speaker was Oscar S. Strauss of New York, among the leading
and most famous mercantile merchants in the world. He and Chancellor Hill were boyhood friends in their home town of Talbotton, GA.
Strauss brought with him George Foster Peabody, a native of Columbus, GA, who moved to New York with his family when he was very young. Foster later became rich as an internationally known banker and financier.
Historian Robert Preston Brooks, writing of the visit of Peabody and his later relationship with the University wrote: “Seldom in the life history of a college has so happy and momentous event occurred as the coming of Peabody to Athens.”
Chancellor Hill and Peabody became great friends and the New Yorker became interested in UGA and proved to be a dedicated friend and generous supporter. By the end of the second year after the Centennial Celebration, Peabody had given over $250,000 including $50,000 for a new library. This building later became the Georgia Museum after construction of the Ilah Dunlap Little Library. Today, it houses the University’s chief administrative offices.
While there is no building named for Georgia Foster Peabody on campus. The prestigious Peabody Awards program honoring the best in Television and Journalism given by the Henry Grady College of Journalism is named for him. UGA gave George Foster Peabody an honorary doctorate in 1906.
