Harry W. Witt graduated from the Palumbo-Donahue School of Business in 1962 and went to work for the accounting firm Touche Ross Bailey & Smart (now known as Deloitte & Touche). He stayed for 40 years. You could say it was a perfect match.

“I had other job offers,” he admits. “My decisions to stay were more intuition than anything else. Partnership means a lot to me in terms of values, whether in business or personal relationships.” As accounting firms consolidated and expanded into consulting, Harry’s career took him from auditing in Pittsburgh to managing operations in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. From there, Harry became a vice chairman and led strategic integration throughout the western hemisphere.

Deloitte’s support of its staff extends to their philanthropic priorities. Like many employers, the company matches its employees’ charitable gifts. “Anytime someone comes up and says, ‘We’ll double your money,’ it catches my attention,” he explains. “Basically, they said they would match my gifts up to $5,000. I didn’t give much thought to it; just started to do it.”

In 1998, Harry established a scholarship that provides financial aid for Duquesne undergraduate business students. Even knowing his gifts were being matched, he was astounded to learn that the market value of his fund had reached nearly $300,000 after just 15 years. Deloitte’s annual matching gifts accelerated the compounding effect of his personal contributions and the University’s investment, even with scholarships being awarded to several students every year.

As a member of the Palumbo-Donahue Business Advisory Council and other professional organizations, Harry urges his colleagues to investigate matching gifts programs. “Beside firms that already have a matching gifts program, there are a lot of alumni who are in the position of influencing corporations that could afford to have matching gifts programs of their own,” he explains.

At the same time, he continues to support the Business School in new ways. He recently established the Harry W. Witt Faculty Fellowship, which is open to faculty from any discipline, and provides salary augmentation, research support and curriculum development funding. The inaugural holder of the Witt Fellowship is Dr. Matthew Drake, an associate professor of supply chain management and a Duquesne alumnus. Harry’s achievements were recognized with the Business School’s 2015 Distinguished Alumnus Award. “I got a good academic education here,” recalls Harry. “But more than that, I got an infusion of values that affected my life and career more than anything.”