Inventor of anti-cancer drug gives Hamilton College a $16 million gift

Hamilton College has received its largest gift ever — from a foundation headed by the inventor of an anti-cancer drug who planned to be a writer when he came to the college in 1942.

"I went to Hamilton to major in English,” recalled Edward Taylor, who is giving $16 million to the college through his SunUp Foundation. “I was required to take a science course in my first semester. I flipped a coin and it turned out to be chemistry instead of biology. I owe my lifelong fascination with chemistry to Hamilton.”