My Best Investment

“Scholarships have a 60-, 70- or 80-year return on investment. The student may only be at UNH for four years, but what they learn and the skills they develop will be with them for the rest of their lives,” says Hamel. “This is the reason why my investment in the students in the Hamel Scholars program is the best investment I’ve ever made in my life.”

And earlier this year, UNH President James W. Dean Jr. announced yet another transformational gift from Hamel: $20 million to support the creation of the Hamel Honors and Scholars College, set to open in fall of 2024. Hamel’s support will significantly expand in-class and extracurricular opportunities for honors students and Hamel Scholars, and create a dedicated living-learning community for high-achieving students inside and adjacent to a renovated Huddleston Hall on the Durham campus.

Because of his philanthropy, transformational things are happening at UNH. But who is the person behind this generosity — this Harvard alum, successful investor and Massachusetts native who has adopted New Hampshire and its flagship university as his own?

Dana Hamel is someone who believes in supporting good causes and, more importantly, helping people get a leg up — but they are expected to do something with that support in return. It’s a lesson he learned at a young age, and it’s the driving force behind his philanthropy.

“My vision for the Hamel Honors and Scholars College is to give hard-working and talented students the opportunity to thrive at a world-class institution,” Hamel says. “My hope for these honors students is to be challenged to grow through engaged scholarship, academic challenge and self-determination to make a positive impact at UNH, in the state of New Hampshire and beyond.”

Dana grew up in Haverhill, Massachusetts, the second son of a leather tannery owner and his homemaker wife. His mother passed away when he was just a boy — a milestone that made Dana independent and determined. “From that point I was pretty much on my own,” he recalls. A positive highlight of his childhood was meeting Martin Chooljian, who would become a lifelong friend and business partner. It was a close friendship that flourished through their years at Haverhill High School, then Harvard University and Harvard Business School, and later in their careers.

Chooljian was the son of Armenian immigrants and very entrepreneurial, with a work ethic that Dana admired. As a young teen, Dana recalls, Martin peddled toys at a county fair. In college, he started selling extension lights and packages of screwdrivers and recruited other college students to sell the tools at factories.

The two shared the same values and work ethic; Martin turned out to be an exemplar of the philanthropic philosophy that Dana would later come to follow with UNH students: that philanthropy and charity from a benefactor should be coupled with drive and determination on the part of the recipient in order to have the most meaningful impact.

Another benefit for Dana of growing up in Haverhill was meeting the girl next door, Kathryn Poore, known as Kay. Kay and Dana would go on to marry in 1953 and have three children: Karen ’88, David and Douglas.

Dana’s philanthropy comes from his business and investing acumen: first, as co-founder of Penn Corporation, which he and Chooljian formed in the mid-1960s in Princeton, New Jersey, and second as a savvy investor, a talent that began when he took over management of the trust his father had set up for him and his brother. “I understood that there is not one answer in investing; it’s all about playing the odds.”

His financial success throughout his career would grow from those skills and experiences; he embraced the uncertainty of the stock market, he reveled in the chance to make his own financial destiny and where others feared risk and failure, he maintained an optimistic view of things working out for the best.

“If someone says to you that something is high risk, what do you think of? Most people think about how much they could lose, but they don’t look at how much they might gain. You can only lose 100% of what you put in, but if you act on something that really works, you could gain 2,000% or more.”

Martin and Dana ran Penn Corporation for nearly 20 years before selling it in 1985. The two remained in business together continuing to share an office in Princeton and pursuing investment opportunities. He and Kay would then begin splitting their time between Princeton, Florida and New Hampshire. In 1992, with their children grown and a new phase of life beginning, Dana and Kay became “snowbirds,” moving to Florida and summering in New Hampshire, enjoying family, friends and hobbies, and being civically engaged and active in both locales. They also traveled extensively throughout their life together, all around the States and on more exotic trips to places like Mongolia, China and other international locales.

Dana and Kay were married for 50 years before she died from a lung disease at their home in Palm Beach’s Lost Tree Village in 2003. Later Dana would meet fellow Lost Tree resident Karol Tyler, who had also lost her spouse. The two were married in 2006, and today the pair split their time between North Palm Beach, Florida; Vero Beach, Florida; and their New Hampshire home in Mirror Lake, part of Tuftonboro, on Lake Winnipesaukee, where Dana has lived for more than 40 years. Over the years, hobbies like tennis and giving to local organizations such as hospitals, historical societies and libraries have continued to hold high importance for the Hamels.

Dana’s belief in giving back started early: As a youngster, he would donate part of his allowance to Sunday school every week. It was there that he met a Sunday school teacher who told the students he was a gravedigger but that he gave it his all, calling himself “the best grave digger in this part of the world.”

“I never forgot that; he was saying don’t judge people by what they do or their wealth,” says Dana. “He taught me that wealth has nothing to do with who you are as a person; it’s what you do with your life that illustrates what kind of person you are.” For Dana, that means focusing on efforts that support others — in the greater Tuftonboro and Wolfeboro communities in New Hampshire, and especially at the state’s flagship university, UNH.

His first public act of philanthropy at UNH wasn’t for life-changing scholarships or research centers he would later support — it was for Quonset huts for the old hockey rink. His gifts and their impact became more significant as his relationship with the university deepened.

“I’d been looking around thinking, ‘I’ve been pretty fortunate in my life. What could I do in this world to make a true impact?’” he recalls. “I was looking for a way to do something significant for New Hampshire, and the more I learned about UNH and its impact, the more I really felt that there was no better asset in the state.” He funded the hockey upgrade because he believes that exercise and good health lead to better learning outcomes. He would go on to support a variety of different initiatives at UNH and serve the university in several ways: In 1998, he would join the UNH Foundation Board. He was one of three board members who led the Celebrate 150 campaign from 2011 to 2018, and he served as advisor to the university on how to invest its endowment. It didn’t hurt that his daughter, Karen Simas ’88, enjoyed her undergraduate years here as a sociology major.

Karen says her father grew up in a family where education was very important, and both he and her uncle always felt that education was the best gift you could give your children. With that gift extended to UNH students, she says, the evolution of his connection to the university has been exciting for her to watch. “It’s right up my dad’s alley, coming up with how best to invest in UNH, and to him it’s investing in every student who benefits from his philanthropy. He wants his investment to better people’s lives, hopefully, and to better the state of New Hampshire, which he loves.”

Hamel has a deep understanding of the socio-economic barriers that prevent qualified and high-achieving students from attending college.

For Dana, the idea went even further — that those students in the Hamel Scholars Program, which his gift founded in 2007, would go on to be the next generation of Granite State leaders, innovators and changemakers to bring us into the future, as well as the nurses, teachers, doctors, social workers and others who would sustain the great way of life that so many of us enjoy.

To date, more than 300 students have been Hamel Scholars since the program was founded. Of those, 40 have been awarded national fellowships, including six Fulbright Fellowships, one Truman Scholarship and four Barry M. Goldwater Scholarships. One student was named an alternate for the prestigious Marshall Scholar program, and one was a Rhodes Scholar finalist. Five have earned medical degrees, 14 are pursuing doctoral degrees and 57 report they are currently working in New Hampshire.

Karen has attended the annual Hamel Scholars luncheon in previous years, where students and alumni from that program gather and get a chance to chat with the Hamel family one on one.

“I’m in awe; I love talking to the students — how can it not be impressive? We get to hear from these young people who know what they want to do and who are so bright. It makes you feel good about the future; that’s been a real gift to my father,” says Karen.

Dana says often that students at UNH are his best investment.

“The Hamel Scholars program has had the biggest impact of anything I’ve contributed to philanthropically. It’s certainly been the most meaningful. I’ve always said that when you invest in scholarships, you’re investing in the life of that student and everything they’ll accomplish well beyond college throughout their life. I think I’ve made a difference in education,” Hamel says.

With his latest contribution, that difference is even more evident.

“The Hamel Honors and Scholars College will be a tremendous point of pride for the entire university and an asset to the state, allowing us to offer an even more fulfilling experience to all of our honors students,” says UNH President James W. Dean Jr. “We are so grateful for his incredible generosity and unwavering commitment to our students.”

For Hamel, he hopes students will lead a life focused on what he calls both the physical and the spiritual — which doesn’t necessarily mean to follow a traditional religion — “it’s basically the belief that there’s more to life than just yourself.” He explains further: The physical is your day-to-day stuff, working and caring for a family. The spiritual “is your behavior every day, and when you get up to an old age, you can look back and say, ‘You know, I’ve done some worthwhile things.’”

But in actuality, looking back isn’t something that Dana does often — something a bit unusual for someone who is 92 years old. While Dana’s life is full of memories he cherishes, he’s too excited about the future to have a mindset stuck in what’s happened in the past.

Part of that forward-looking optimism is believing in an individual’s ability to set their own course — something he has done, and something he wants UNH students to embrace. He finds inspiration in William Ernest Henley’s famed poem, “Invictus.” The final lines are: “I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.”

“You can’t blame anybody else for your own actions,” says Dana. He connects that to the students and programs he’s supporting at UNH. “Think about it; people will probably live to be 90, and for college students, that means they’ve got about 70 years to go, and you multiply that by 365 days and 16 hours of waking time. … Of course there are major things, like a death in the family, that are really significant. But don’t let it overly stay with you; it’s just a little bit of a long life to go.”