Mary K. Eliot, Casey Mallinckrodt, and Walter Robinson
By COA Dean of Institutional Advancement Shawn Keeley ’00
As COA rings in its 50th academic year, friendship stands out as one of the most enduring and sustaining qualities that make up the fabric of our community. This year, the power of friendship was on display when three long-time friends of COA—Mary K. Eliot, Casey Mallinckrodt, and Walter Robinson—generously offered to contribute a $50,000 match if COA raised $50,000 for our annual 24-Hour Challenge. Thanks to more than 630 donors, we collectively met their challenge as well as an additional $25,000 matching gift offered by another COA friend. In total, COA raised a record-breaking $194,000 in one day.
“A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.”
Mary K., Casey, and Walter’s friendships formed around the college and continue to make an impact today.
In the early 1970s, Mary K. and Sam Eliot were part of the innermost circle of COA staff and advocates. Mary K.’s most enduring mark on the college is COA’s iconic logo, which she developed using five Germanic runes, while Sam’s work provided the backbone of the curriculum and our approach to human ecology. In the first years of the college, Sam was traveling to promote COA and gave a talk at Casey’s high school in St. Louis. Casey was fascinated by the college and interested in enrolling, but her parents thought COA was too new and too experimental. Nonetheless, Casey made her way to MDI and took summer classes in 1974, one of which was a poetry class taught by Mary K. and Sam. Mary K. has been one of Casey’s dearest friends and mentors ever since.
Casey taught art classes at COA in the 1990s and has served as a trustee for many years. Ever since Walter and Casey became friends in 1982, Walter was intrigued by Casey’s stories of the college, and happily agreed when she asked him to join the board. Coming from teaching pediatrics and medical ethics at Harvard Medical School, “it took a little while,” he admits, for Walter to figure out how COA worked. Over time, he has watched larger institutions adopt COA’s focus on human ecology and interdisciplinary approach to education, noting, “You know you’re on the right track when everyone copies your success.” Walter served two terms on the COA board, one in the 1990s and one in the 2000s, and has come up to the island as a guest lecturer as often as he can. “Being with COA students is exciting—it’s thrilling to see them think through problems with creativity and rigor,” he says.
In the fall of 2020, when COA President Darron Collins ’92 asked Walter to consider helping with a challenge grant for the upcoming 24-Hour Challenge, Walter quickly agreed, adding, “Let’s get Casey involved, she introduced me to the college.” And when Casey agreed, she said, “Let’s get Mary K. involved, she and Sam introduced me to the college.”
And so it goes. Friends introduce friends to a cause about which they are passionate. Over time, both the friendship and the commitment to the cause deepens. This blending of friendship and philanthropy is a powerful combination, and has been a huge part of COA’s success over the years.
