Cornell cherishes alumnus Ratan Tata’s legacy of transformative giving

Paying rich tributes to Ratan Tata, one of India’s most respected business leaders and philanthropist, who passed on Oct 9, Cornell University said it would remember its former student’s “legacy of transformative giving.”

Tata, who graduated from the Ivy League institution, where he earned his degree in architecture and structural engineering in 1962, became his alma mater’s most generous international donor.

“Ratan Tata ’59, B.Arch. ’62, the university’s most generous international donor and one of India’s most respected business leaders and philanthropists, passed Oct. 9. We will remember his legacy of transformative giving to Cornell,” the university posted on X.

“Ratan Tata’s quiet demeanour and humility belied his international profile,” said Cornell University’s interim president Michael Kotlikoff. “His generosity and concern for others enabled research and scholarship that improved the education and health of millions of people in India and beyond, and extended Cornell’s global impact.”

A former Cornell trustee, Tata was instrumental in setting up the Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition, a research initiative, in 2008. In 2017, a $50 million investment helped build the Tata Innovation Centre at Cornell’s Roosevelt Island campus in New York.

The Tata Scholarship Fund offers scholarships to 20 Indian students studying at Cornell University. As of this academic year, 305 Tata scholarships have been awarded to 89 students from India.

READ: Aided by $25 million from Ratan Tata, Cornell starts initiative to reduce poverty, malnutrition in India (May 8, 2013)

When Tata initially joined the batch of 1959, he had enrolled to study mechanical engineering. However, he changed his major two years later to pursue architecture.

“When Ratan Tata graduated from Cornell with a degree in architecture, it would have been impossible to imagine the global impact his visionary leadership, philanthropy and commitment to humanity would go on to have — advancing education and research across many sectors,” said J. Meejin Yoon, the dean of Cornell University College of Architecture, Art, and Planning.

In a documentary produced by his classmates during a reunion in 2009, Ratan Tata credited his architectural training in Cornell for some of his successes in business, including learning to approach problems creatively.

“The miles of tracing paper that all of us wasted on one concept after another did one thing: It taught us that we didn’t stick with one thing,” Tata said in the documentary. “We tried, and we tried, and we improved, and we reconceived what we had to do. It’s no different in business.”

In the documentary, Tata also discussed his love of flying, a hobby he pursued as a student. In fact, during his Cornell days, Tata once safely executed an emergency landing of a four-seater aircraft with several of his classmates on board, after an engine failure.

(This story was originally published by The American Bazaar.)