Bill and Wendy Payne Champion W&L’s Institutional History Museum with $3.5M Gift

Bill and Wendy Payne Champion W&L's Institutional History Museum with $3.5M Gift

Jeff Hanna
January 22, 2025

Bill and Wendy Payne of Dallas have made a $3.5 million gift to the Institutional History Museum and have asked that $1.5 million of their gift be used as a challenge to inspire other donors to participate in the project. Bill is a 1988 graduate of Washington and Lee and a member of the Board of Trustees.

The museum was conceived in 2018 and is included in both the Strategic Plan and the Campus Master Plan. In addition, it is among the initiatives for the Leading Lives of Consequence campaign.

Payne is currently president of Druid Hills Capital, LLC, an investment management firm focused on a wide range of public and private investments. He joined Druid Hills Capital in 2007 after previous roles at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, Credit Suisse First Boston and Morgan Stanley. He holds an MBA with distinction from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

The Museum Working Group, composed of trustees, administrative staff, faculty and alumni, was established in October 2022 to formulate plans for the facility. Payne serves as co-chair of the Museum Working Group with Steve McAllister, vice president for finance and administration.

The museum, designed to serve as an educational resource for the W&L community and the broader public, will be built on a site near the intersection of Jefferson and Washington streets, at the northern end of what is currently the Corral parking lot. As currently envisioned, the facility will have approximately 40,000 gross square feet with multiple galleries that feature professional and student exhibits spanning the university's long history, including a gallery dedicated to examining the legacies of George Washington and Robert E. Lee and their overall contributions to education at W&L. The new museum will complement existing historical galleries in the University Chapel and Washington Hall.

Payne, who currently chairs the Board of Trustees' Resources Committee (newly created from the combination of the Capital Projects Committee and the Finance Committee), was chair of the Capital Projects Committee when plans were developed to remodel the University Chapel and to make other changes on campus that were recommended by the special Board committee that made a detailed review of the university's name and symbols.

"As we did the work on the special committee, the Chapel and the various plaques, portraits, statues and signage around campus, there was a perception amongst some in our community that we were distancing ourselves from, or even erasing, our history," said Payne. "But I came to believe that not only was that not our intention, but that we needed to focus on executing on President Dudley's original concept of an Institutional History Museum to display, educate, contextualize, appreciate and celebrate our history because there is so much important and fascinating information to provide.

"Some of the 'magic sauce' of W&L is the Honor System, the Speaking Tradition, the civility of our community and our heavy reliance on student self-government," said Payne. "All these uniquely W&L traditions are deeply rooted in our history. Consequently, I feel strongly that it's important for people to understand where these traditions come from, and to delve into many of our other stories that haven't been previously told."

As part of its planning process, the Museum Working Group has engaged the architectural firm Quinn Evans and the museum design firm Gallagher & Associates to assist in the process.

"One thing that all of us on the Working Group understand is that this building is critically important to our community," Payne said. "We have to get it right the first time. Throughout our discussions, we have been asking a lot of the basic but crucial questions. What do we want it to be? Where will we build it? Who is it for? What is going to go into it? How do we ensure historical accuracy and the presentation of balanced and proportional perspectives? How will it be managed after it's built?"

Members of the community will soon have an opportunity to weigh in on many of these issues as well by responding to a special survey, which Payne describes as the start of a community conversation.

"This project is near and dear to my heart because I think it is the best way to preserve so much that makes W&L unique," said Payne, who previously established the William G. Payne Fund Endowment to support curriculum innovation for Spring Term courses in the Williams School. "When you think about the kind of quantum leap the university has made in the last 30, 40 or 50-plus years, so much of it is tied to the combination of living and learning that occurs in the Shenandoah Valley with teachers who really want to be teaching, and kids who become adults in an environment rooted in integrity and civility. All of that is straight from our history."

According to McAllister, the timetable for the museum calls for refinement of the final external design concept during the next four months. Meanwhile, work proceeds on the programmatic aspects of the space through the community survey. Gallagher & Associates will incorporate feedback from the survey into the visitor experience plan they are developing along with Matt Davis, who was named as director of the Institutional History Museum last May.

"It's wonderful to have such a champion on this project as Bill Payne has been," Davis said. "We are fortunate to have his insights, his passion and his love of W&L. It's inspiring."

W&L President Will Dudley expressed the university's appreciation for Payne's contributions to the project.

"Bill's leadership has been critical to advancing the Institutional History Museum, which will be such an important educational resource," Dudley said. "I am grateful for the Paynes' generous financial support, their challenge to inspire other donors to join them and the time and energy Bill has devoted to the Museum Working Group."

For more information about how to support the Museum of Institutional History or the Leading Lives of Consequence campaign, contact the Office of Development at [email protected].

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