RIT receives $11.1 million gift from late alumnus and spouse
RIT has received a gift of $11.1 million through the estate of late alumnus and former trustee Henry Navas and his late wife, Deborah Robbins. Included is a gift of $4.8 million to RIT’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf, the largest gift in its history. Throughout their lives, the couple supported several areas of RIT. With this latest gift, they have given a total of $12.4 million.
NTID will use the gift to support student scholarship and success, according to NTID President Gerry Buckley.
“Henry and Deborah were lifelong friends of NTID,” said Buckley. “It is through this friendship and the mutual respect shared among Henry, Deborah, and I that our students will be able to live, learn, and thrive as part of our very special community. We are so grateful.”
Additionally, $800,000 from the estate will support RIT’s Big Shot photo project co-produced by the School of Photographic Arts and Sciences and NTID. Navas, a champion of the “painting with light” project, visited several potential sites with the Big Shot team.
Professor Michael Peres wrote about Navas, “We had many long and wonderful conversations about Big Shot and its future. Being a person who enjoyed challenges and process, Henry dreamed big things for Big Shot. He liked Big Shot because it brought people together and it had both social and cultural components. He often commented how Big Shot was about art, technology, and so much more. His impact on Big Shot will be forever remembered and honored.”
In 2024, the Navas-Robbins Poetry Fund in the College of Liberal Arts was established with a $150,000 gift to provide students with opportunities to meet and work with professional poets, writers, and artists, and to expand learning across disciplines. Today, the fund provides copies of visiting poets’ books to students, staff, and faculty; creates broadside art prints of poems by visiting poets printed on RIT’s letterpress; facilitates the work of student poets at readings; and establishes partnerships with local literary organizations.
RIT’s Eugene H. Fram Chair in Applied Critical Thinking, who leads the charge to foster the application of exercising effective thinking, has been permanently endowed thanks to the couple’s $5.3 million gift. Navas and Robbins established the Fram Chair in 2012, funding it anonymously during their lifetimes, but has given the university permission to posthumously share their names.
Navas, who died in 2022, earned an MBA in 1974 and a master’s degree in accounting in 1977 from Saunders College of Business. He served on RIT’s Board of Trustees from 2013 to 2015. His career included work in Xerox’s internal operations analysis department; as director of internal audit at Advanced Micro Devices; and at Cisco Systems, where he became controller and treasurer and helped launch the company’s initial public offering in 1990.
He served on several RIT committees, including the board’s education and audit committees, as well as the RIT West Coast Board of Advisors from 2014 to 2020 and the Strategic Plan Task Force from 2014 to 2016. He was also honored with the Saunders College of Business Distinguished Alumni Award in 2016.
Robbins earned her Ph.D. in English Literature with a specialization in American Studies from Northwestern University. She taught in the English departments at Marquette University and University of Michigan. After her teaching career, she worked at Xerox and Apple, where she managed editors.
After retiring from Apple, Robbins devoted much of her time to volunteering at the Peninsula Humane Society and volunteering at a gibbon sanctuary in Thailand. She was also a board member of the San Francisco Zoo.
Both Navas and Robbins were avid readers and supporters of the arts. Robbins died in early 2022, a few months before Navas.
Navas and Robbins “worked tirelessly to support RIT through their generous giving and dedication to its students, faculty, and staff,” said Phil Castleberry, vice president of University Advancement. “All those who knew Henry and Deborah immediately felt a sense of connectedness. We are forever grateful to them for their passion toward the university and their belief in the power and impact of higher education.”
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