As the commencement speaker at Morehouse College’s class of 2019 graduation ceremony, Robert F. Smith (the principal founder, chairman, and CEO of Austin-based Vista Equity Partners and ranked by Forbes as the richest black man in America) stunned those assembled by announcing his intention to pay off the student loans of all 396 graduates. Wildly understating his gift – “We’re going to put a little fuel in your bus,” the philanthropist put it – Smith later sweetened the deal further: His $34 million donation to the new Morehouse College Student Success Program will pay off parent loans, too.
