Welcome to the 2025 Honor Roll of Donors. As in years past, you’ll need your VMI Ranks login to view the lists in order to protect the privacy of donors.
A Letter from the VMI Alumni Agencies Board Chairman | Highlights of Giving | Stories of Your Impact | Donor Rolls
Virginia Military Institute’s long tradition of providing an extraordinary education built on a foundation of academic excellence, leadership development, and military rigor has been sustained across generations not only by the unwavering commitment of our faculty, staff, and volunteer leaders, but also by the steadfast loyalty of alumni, families, and friends. Simply put, your support ensures that today’s cadets have the resources, opportunities, and encouragement they need to follow in the footsteps of those who have gone before them: Leaders of character who served our nation with honor.
Each gift, whether large or small, is a vote of confidence in VMI’s mission and a tangible expression of the values we all hold dear: Duty, honor, service, and sacrifice. Collectively, your contributions strengthen scholarships, enhance academic and military programs, and preserve the Institute’s distinctive environment that forges citizen-soldiers prepared to meet the challenges of the future by achieving their full potential.
In this year’s Honor Roll of Donors, you will see data and statistics that demonstrate just how generous the VMI family was in Fiscal Year 2025, the impact that private financial support has on VMI’s overall financial situation, and how VMI uses those private funds. Beyond numbers, you will see the positive impact of private giving on the lives of our cadets and the work of our faculty.
In a recent article, Col. Stacia “Stacey” Vargas, Ph.D., VMI’s Department of Physics and Astronomy head and a dedicated faculty member for almost three decades, described teaching cadets as “the best job in the world.” Like so many of her colleagues, she has been supported in her important work by donors to her department. She described how “physics majors from the Class of 1966 helped establish … the Mallory Circle Fund. The funds from it directly support the department, enabling us to send cadets to conferences and field trips, assist them in publishing their research, provide department awards, and much more.”
Private financial support also helps VMI retain and reward faculty members like Stacey Vargas. Just this past year, the Peay Endowment for Academic Excellence provided funding for 11 chairs and professorships, all of them held by faculty members who are scholars, skillful teachers, and devoted mentors, and who not only help cadets reach their full potential but also elevate VMI’s academic reputation in an increasingly competitive environment.
While on the topic of cadets, I recently rewatched one of the excellent Corps Connection videos. In it, Brooks Freeman ’25 recounts how he wanted to come to VMI to fully realize his potential, but finances were a barrier. Enter VMI’s financial aid office with a scholarship. It was the tipping point for Brooks, who said, “[T]he people who make these scholarships … they make dreams come true.”
I know how Brooks felt. In my 3rd Class year, I was forced to consider leaving VMI because of the costs. Happily, the financial support I received from a scholarship funded by a local family allowed me to stay and fulfill my dream of commissioning as a U.S. Marine.
Today, many donors are helping a new generation of young people realize their dreams of serving our great country as military officers through the Call to Duty Scholarships. Still relatively new, this program has already garnered millions of dollars in donations—enough to provide the funds necessary to attract young people to the Institute who are determined to commission in our armed forces. In fact, during the current academic year, approximately 180 cadets are receiving aid through this program.
There are many other success stories like these in our academic buildings and in barracks—and none of them would be possible without the generations of donors who have committed themselves to supporting VMI.
On behalf of the VMI Alumni Agencies, I extend my warmest thanks and deepest gratitude to every member of the VMI family whose generosity is acknowledged in this edition of the Honor Roll of Donors. Personally, I am inspired by the difference your support makes every day in the lives of cadets and the future of VMI.
Thank you for your continued commitment to the mission of the VMI Alumni Agencies, the education of the Corps of Cadets, and the future of VMI.
John P. Williams ’88
VMI Alumni Agencies Board Chairman
VMI Foundation President
In support of the extraordinary educational experience that VMI provides, donors contributed $24.9 million in gifts and commitments during Fiscal Year 2025. Their generous gifts will ensure VMI continues to lead the way academically, athletically, and in its co-curricular programs.
In Fiscal Year 2025, more than a quarter of VMI’s budget came from private sources. This enduring generosity from the VMI family provides millions of dollars in private money every year and forms an underpinning of resources on which VMI cadets can rely.
The generosity of the VMI family—past and present—touches the lives of hundreds of cadets every year. One way it does so is through full and partial scholarships. In Fiscal Year 2025, hundreds of cadets again received full and partial scholarships of all types.
In Fiscal Year 2025, alumni comprised the majority of donors, but a significant number of other members of the VMI family also gave.
Private giving support includes:
Need/Merit Based Scholarships and NCAA Scholarship Support
“So the more that I lean into it, the more that I come back to VMI, and the more that I give back, the more that I’m getting out of it."
Will Woodward ’18 knows the brother rat spirit is stronger than the challenges life throws at everyone—and working together, individuals can accomplish far more than they can alone.
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