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Photo courtesy of Montrose School. Katie Elrod (left), Head of Montrose School, called the school's recent award of a $1 million grant to its endowment a "transformative milestone."
By Caroline Killilea, News Intern
Montrose School received a $1,000,000 grant this past April, the largest donation to bolster endowment and tuition assistance in the school’s history. The historic grant was awarded to Montrose by the John A. McNeice, Jr. Charitable Foundation in recognition of its nationally-recognized character education program.
Montrose, located in downtown Medfield, is an independent all-girls Catholic school for grades 6-12. The school will use the majority of the grant, $800,000, to establish the John And Margarete McNeice Endowed Fund, which will generate earnings to bolster the school’s tuition assistance for Montrose students. The remainder will be used for Montrose’s 2024-2025 financial assistance, as the school currently awards its students over $2,000,000 annually in tuition assistance.
John McNeice attended Boston College High School, working as a caddy to pay for his tuition and hitchhiking his way to school each day. He also studied at Boston College, graduating in 1954, and went on to serve in the U.S. Army. He returned to Boston to work as a financial analyst at Colonial Funds, eventually becoming CEO and Chairman of the Colonial Group of mutual funds.
John and his wife Margarete were well-known in the Boston area for their philanthropy efforts. John was a board member of Boston College and Boston College High School, among other Catholic organizations, and remained a devout Catholic throughout his life. John and Margarete’s daughter, Margarete McNeice Portanova, is the McNeice Foundation’s Executive Director.
McNeice Portanova's daughter, Emma, graduated from Montrose in 2017. McNeice Portanova notes that Emma has greatly benefitted from the character formation and education she received during her time as a Montrose student. Catholic education had always been important to McNeice Portanova's father, and she works to further her father’s philanthropic efforts through the Foundation.
“It is my honor to be able to grant this gift through my father’s foundation,” said McNeice Portanova. “His ultimate gift to me was the joy I received in fulfilling his dream to help institutions that support the importance of Catholic faith in every aspect of our life.”
Montrose submitted a formal grant application to the McNeice Foundation last fall, since the school had an existing relationship with the McNeice Foundation, which had made donations to Montrose in the past.
“The foundation had always been very generous in the same way that they’ve been generous in this way, with tuition assistance for families with socio-economic needs,” said Katie Elrod, Montrose’s Head of School. “We applied because we knew the McNeice Foundation and its mission was very much aligned with our school, so it was a relationship that we were eager to continue.”
Elrod also spoke of how the grant assists in Montrose’s mission of ensuring that its students come from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. A Montrose education “is really an opportunity for girls to find their noble purpose and understand that God has created a beautiful plan for them,” said Elrod. “We wanted to make sure that any family who is interested in sending their daughter to Montrose would have the opportunity.”
Thanks to Caroline Killilea, a journalism major and rising sophomore at Northwestern University, for contributing this article to Westwood Minute. Thanks to Montrose School for sharing its news.
Updated 9/1/2024 at 8:39 p.m. A correction has been made to a misspelling of the author's name, where an "i" was mistakenly transposed with an "e." The correct spelling is "Killilea." Westwood Minute apologizes for the error.
