Darla Moore School of Business

Banking on the Palmetto State, South Carolina

  • Local Projects
  • 1998

Darla Moore was the highest-paid woman in banking. Then she married multimillionaire investor Richard Rainwater in 1991. Working together, they tripled his fortune to $1.5 billion by 1998.

That same year, Moore gave $25 million to her alma mater, the University of South Carolina (which renamed its business school after her). That gift was followed by an additional $45 million to the Moore School of Business in 2004, and $5 million to the school’s aerospace center. She also gave $10 million to Clemson University in her father’s name, and founded the Charleston Parks Conservancy and the Palmetto Institute (a think tank focused on expanding the state economy).