by Kris Foster

The paths taken by Richard and Pamela Joho have led to a love of education and a passion for the humanities. On October 28, 2008, the Johos announced a multimillion-dollar gift to Carleton’s College of the Humanities that will establish a scholarship for students who are pursuing a classical liberal arts education.

Through lifetime and planned giving arrangements, the bulk of their life savings will be donated to the college. In time the gift will endow the scholarship, covering the full cost of an undergraduate degree—including four years of tuition, housing, meals, textbooks and personal expenses—for students in the College of the Humanities.

Thanks to the Johos, the paths taken by Carleton’s future scholars in the College of the Humanities became a lot brighter.

For days prior to the announcement that they would donate their entire life savings and possessions to Carleton University’s College of the Humanities, Richard and Pamela Joho reminisced about the roads they have taken during life’s journey.

“There are so many roads you can take in life,” says Pamela. “And you never know as you start down any given road whether it will end up being a main road, a side road or a dead end.”

The main roads, explains Pamela, are choices that end up being the underlying themes of life, the decisions made that are still important to you years later. The side roads—short detours perhaps—are important when followed, and you may enjoy and learn from such trips, but ultimately the journey on these paths doesn’t last long. The dead ends, they just aren’t for you. They are, however, of value in that they lead you to the realization that there are some places you don’t want to go and some things you aren’t interested in pursuing.

So what were the main roads in the lives of the Johos? “Actually the announcement comes pretty close,” says Richard, “and when we got married. The gift represents everything we worked so hard for and it is so satisfying to know that it is going to a good cause.”

Pamela is quick to agree, and jokes that marriage was like the scene in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid when the title characters jump off a cliff into a river holding hands—choose a road and trust in your judgment, trust yourself and each other, and trust in what you’re about to do.

“In a sense the main roads we have taken culminated with this gift,” Pamela says.

So, what roads led the Johos—who have no previous connection to the university—to Carleton? The short and simple answer is a Google search. But the long answer is more interesting.

“We started to look around in the early ‘90s. We had been casually shopping around for the past 15 years,” says Richard of the process of determining which cause to support. “We were asked why we chose education, with so many other charities out there,” he continues. “We are not Warren Buffett or Bill Gates, we had to pick something. Education has meant so much to us that we chose to support that.”

About three years ago window shopping evolved to active pursuit.

“What drove that was the realization that we had not yet done our wills,” explains Pamela. “We realized that we really needed to do something about our wills and sort out which university we would support.”

After searching high and low for a humanities program that matched closely with the Johos’ priorities and ideals, they still hadn’t found what they were looking for. They admit that they nearly gave up their search. “Dick actually said: ‘It is so hard to give our money away, maybe we should just give it to the humane society or something’,” says Pamela.

That all changed when Pamela typed the key words “liberal arts humanities college” into a search engine. Thousands upon thousands of results appeared. Carleton’s College of the Humanities was one of them. Upon meeting the faculty, staff, and in particular the students at Carleton, the Johos knew they found the right match.

“We have met absolutely first rate people here. Those kids are amazing,” says Richard.

“We knew from the beginning that we wanted to support students,” explains Pamela. “By supporting students you are building your citizens and future leaders.”

That is a university’s role; its most important role, to develop citizens.

“To invest in students is to help solve real-world problems,” says Richard. “The problem we are trying to solve is to get more people who are well trained. We face a challenge not often cited, like global warming, that threatens our future—the need for far more good bright people, well-rounded and well trained, to provide leadership and to tackle our world’s current and future problems.”

The Johos are certain that the interdisciplinary approach of the humanities program at Carleton addresses this issue. “This type of education,” says Pamela, “teaches you how to know, to ask broad questions and to think in a broader context.”

Another thing is certain, the human condition and the experience of being human do not have the potential to be obsolete—an education in the humanities is an education for life.

Through the investment in people, the longevity and impact this gift will have is astounding. Starting in 2010, the Richard and Pamela Joho Scholarship will be awarded to humanities students who demonstrate both academic merit and extra-curricular and/or community involvement. This scholarship is expected to support hundreds of students.

“It’s a way to make our contribution little by little,” says Richard. “The people we are going to be helping are 20 years old—that’s going to pay dividends for 50 years.”

“You never know where the roads lead you, because you have not yet reached the end of the journey. But for us this gift is a great close-to-the-end destination” says Pamela.

“Let’s call it a waypoint rather than an end destination,” says Richard with a laugh. “We’re still on the journey.”

An education on the humanities

The College of the Humanities was founded in 1996 to provide an undergraduate education for students drawing on all the traditional arts subjects through the Bachelor of Humanities program. The interdisciplinary character of the college has recently been enhanced by the addition of a Bachelor of Arts in Greek and Roman studies and a Bachelor of Arts in Religion. Thanks to this rich mix of programs, the college allows faculty and students to benefit from each other’s study of the various arts disciplines and fosters collegiality among its students through small discussion groups and their own college precinct.