Boston University trustee, mentor and theater enthusiast Peter H. Vermilye died of complications from pneumonia March 9. He was 89.
Vermilye, a Princeton University graduate and established investment executive, began his career at BU as a trustee in 1969 and went on to become chair of the Board of Trustees Investment Committee.’ He was responsible for increasing the university’s endowment from $28 million in the early 1970s to about $1 billion in 2006, according to a press release.
‘He provided a behind-the-scenes but an enormous service to Boston University,’ Board of Trustees Chair Robert Knox said.
When Knox became a trustee in 1997, he became part of the Investment Committee under Vermilye, he said. Unlike most large institutions, BU had a committee rather than a professional staff to run its endowment and allocate investments.
Vermilye was responsible for ultimately hiring and firing investment managers and managing BU’s assets. Today, BU has a professional staff headed by Chief Investment Officer Pam Peedin.
Vermilye ‘played an enormous role in building the financial resources necessary for Boston University’s ascendancy as a great university,’ BU Treasurer and Vice President for Financial Affairs Martin Howard said in an email.
Howard said Vermilye had his own strategy for compiling BU’s endowment portfolio, or allocating investments.
‘Peter once described the wise investor as one who has an insatiable curiosity, a fascination with the causality of all types of events and their impact on markets,’ Howard said. ‘Consistently, Peter exhibited his own personal disciplines of mind and emotion in financial matters as well as global factors of politics, history, religion and demographics in leading the formulation and implementation of Boston University’s investment strategy.’
As such, Knox said Vermilye’s guidance, wisdom and leadership additionally earned him the respect of dozens of investment managers.
Knox said Vermilye held the belief that managing money ‘benefitted everybody in the world’ because it involves deploying capital and services to help others.
‘What I admired so much about Peter ‘- and hopefully it’s a shared set of values ‘- is he believed in doing things ethically,’ Knox said.
‘He was great believer in that character as well as track record of an investment manager was a plus, and that’s something he never would compromise on.’
An avid lover of theater, Vermilye was also the Chairman Emeritus of The Huntington Theatre Company in Boston, founded by BU in 1982.
Michael Maso, managing director of The Huntington Theatre Company, described Vermilye’s role as the first chairman of the company in 1986.
‘He recruited all of our key board members over the first decade of The Huntington and really was critical for building a board,’ he said.
CFA Dean Walt Meissner remembered Vermilye as the major force behind the University facilitating the independence of The Huntington.
‘If not for Peter and his wise leadership and advocacy, I doubt the University and the Huntington would have partnered as we have,’ he said. ‘
‘Peter was a very tough guy,’ Maso said.’ ‘He was the guy who was very demanding and very clear, but he was somebody who loved artists and was really devoted to plays that made people think and challenged their preconceived ideas.’
Vermilye is survived by his wife Lucy, two daughters, two sons, two sisters and seven grandchildren, according to a press release.
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