The College of William and Mary in Virginia, where former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates serves as president emeritus, will receive an academic building named after him, the school announced Wednesday. .
The school said in a statement that Robert M. Gates Hall will be home to areas including economic development and inequality, geopolitical conflict, national security and conservation.
Gates is the only secretary of defense asked to remain in post after a new president is elected, the Pentagon said. He served under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
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Gates served as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency under President George H.W. Bush in the early 1990s. Gates also wrote the book “The Exercise of Power: America’s Failures, Successes, and New Progress in the Post-Cold War World.”
Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates speaks at the annual meeting of the Boy Scouts of America on May 23, 2014 in Nashville, Tennessee. The College of William and Mary in Virginia, where Gates is president emeritus, will have a school building named after him, the school announced on March 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Zaleski, File)
A $30 million gift from an anonymous donor made construction of the hall possible. Currently vacant Brown Hall will be renovated into the Williamsburg campus.
William & Mary President Catherine Lowe praised the donors, saying Gates “has championed the power of education and scholarship to advance democracy and build a better world.”
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Gates received his bachelor’s degree from the College of William & Mary in 1965. He then earned a master’s degree in history from Indiana University and a doctorate in Russian and Soviet history from Georgetown University. He was also commissioned a second lieutenant in the United States Air Force.
“This is the greatest honor I have received in my lifetime,” Gates said in a statement. “William & Mary is where I felt my calling to public service, and I see that sense of calling to make a difference is still felt strongly here.”
