Not to be confused with the John M. Olin Foundation

John M. Olin Foundation

John M. Olin Foundation was a grant-making foundation established in 1953 by John M. Olin, president of the Olin Industries chemical and munitions manufacturing businesses. Unlike most non-profit foundations, the John M. Olin Foundation was charged to spend all of its assets within a generation of...

 founded by Olin's son.

The Franklin W. Olin Foundation was founded in 1938 by Franklin W. Olin

Franklin W. Olin

Franklin Walter Olin was the founder of the Olin Corporation.He was born in Woodford, Vermont and his father built mills and waterwheels. He studied civil engineering at Cornell University, where he also played baseball; he would play as an outfielder in the American Association for two seasons...

.

By the mid-1970s, the era of Horn, Wynn and Clark was ending, and the torch was passed to a new generation of board members. The transition in leadership began in 1974 with the election to the board of Carlton T. Helming, an officer of Federal Cartridge

Federal Cartridge

Federal Cartridge is a wholly owned subsidiary of Alliant Techsystems, located in Edina, Minnesota. With a work force of nearly 1,000 in Anoka, Minnesota, Federal manufactures a complete line of shotshell, centerfire, and rimfire ammunition and components....

 Corporation, and Lawrence W. Milas, a law partner of Mr. Wynn. At about the same time, William B. Horn, Chairman & President of Federal Cartridge

Federal Cartridge

Federal Cartridge is a wholly owned subsidiary of Alliant Techsystems, located in Edina, Minnesota. With a work force of nearly 1,000 in Anoka, Minnesota, Federal manufactures a complete line of shotshell, centerfire, and rimfire ammunition and components....

, and son of Charles L. Horn, joined the board.

In 1982, the foundation gave funding for the construction of the Olin Fine Arts Center at Washington & Jefferson College

Washington & Jefferson College

Washington & Jefferson College, also known as W & J College or W&J, is a private liberal arts college in Washington, Pennsylvania, in the United States, which is south of Pittsburgh...

.

The foundation donated buildings to numerous college campuses, often for business

Business

A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...

 or engineering

Engineering

Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...

 use.
Led by foundation President Lawrence W. Milas, F.W. Olin Foundation announced its plans to create a new engineering college. The board was prepared to establish and fully fund the new college with a major gift, today estimated to be worth $400 million; the college offers an outstanding engineering education to top students at little or no cost.

The Franklin W. Olin Foundation made such a significant contribution to Miss Porter's School

Miss Porter's School

Miss Porter's School, sometimes simply referred to as Porter's or Farmington, is a private college preparatory school for girls located in Farmington, Connecticut.- History :...

 that, to this day the Olin Arts and Science Center stands to honor three members of the Olin family that are graduates of the school. The building has a painting and ceramics studio, each with 25-foot ceilings and 500 feet of windows; a computer art lab with the most current programs and equipment; a multi-media studio for jewelry and textiles; and a photography studio and dark room.

On October 16, 1995, Babson President William F. Glavin announced that the F. W. Olin Foundation was granting Babson College $30 million to build a new graduate school building. At the time it had been the largest grant ever made to an independent graduate business school and one of the largest ever given to any business school. The grant funded the construction of the new graduate center, established an endowment for the graduate school to study and support innovative curricula, created the F. W. Olin Distinguished Chair in Entrepreneurship, and formed merit-based F. W. Olin Graduate Fellowships. In recognition of this extraordinary gift, Babson College’s graduate school was renamed the Franklin W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College.

In 1997, the F. W. Olin Foundation chartered Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering

Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering

The Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering is a private undergraduate engineering college located in Needham, Massachusetts , adjacent to the Babson College campus. Olin College is noted in the engineering community for its youth, small size, project-based curriculum, and large endowment funded...

 in Needham, Massachusetts

Needham, Massachusetts

Needham is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. A suburb of Boston, its population was 28,886 at the 2010 census.- History :...

, a private undergraduate college

College

A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...

. The remainder of foundation funds have been donated, in several grants, to the college's endowment

Financial endowment

A financial endowment is a transfer of money or property donated to an institution. The total value of an institution's investments is often referred to as the institution's endowment and is typically organized as a public charity, private foundation, or trust....

.

Also in 1997, the F.W. Olin Foundation awarded a $50 million grant to Florida Institute of Technology

Florida Institute of Technology

Florida Institute of Technology, also known as Florida Tech, is an independent private technical research university located in Melbourne, Florida, United States. Founded in 1958 as Brevard Engineering College, the institute has been known by its present name since 1966. Florida Tech's curriculum...

. The grant was used by the university to fund part of the construction costs of the F.W. Olin Engineering Complex and the F.W. Olin Life Sciences Building. The foundation later awarded another grant to FIT for some of the construction costs of the Olin Physical Sciences Building.

In the year 2000, the Board of Trustees of the Olin Foundation began to implement a gradual phaseout plan, which led to its ultimate closure in November 2005.