Transformational Gift Caps Off ‘Long,’ Successful Journey
David Long ’83, H’14 fully appreciates how fortunate he was to have received a full scholarship to Hartwick.
Recruited from Liverpool, England, to play soccer (following in the footsteps of his brother, Stephen ’80), David found himself 3,300 miles away from home, living a very different life from what he’d known — and he relished every moment.
“I was a little bit of an anomaly,” he jokes. “I was a soccer player and a math major. If I couldn’t kick a ball around, I’d just have been a big nerd.”
Hartwick’s faculty not only allowed him to do both — they encouraged it.
With an enrollment far smaller than that of his high school, Hartwick’s warmth and sincerity was a welcome change.
“It allowed me to get introduced to very different and cool groups of people,” David reflects. “I just had a lot of fun figuring out that there’s a lot of different people in the world.”
One of them was Stephanie Isgur ’84. A psychology major, she would add a minor in women’s studies — which didn’t exist back then. However, Hartwick’s flexibility allowed her to design her own academic program — and David admired her creativity.
More than 40 years and two children later, the couple has had quite the journey. In 1985, David joined Liberty Mutual Insurance Group as a financial analyst. He steadily worked his way to the top of this Fortune 100 company, becoming president in 2010, chief executive officer in 2011 and board chairman in 2013. (He retired at the end of 2022 but remains its chair.) Stephanie, meanwhile, began as a house parent to Oliver and Hayley, before a career as a fundraiser and event planner — and later, an archivist.
In recent years, the couple has focused on initiatives which benefit children and young adults with autism, a population which includes their son. Today, Stephanie serves as president of The Common Room — a social organization for young adults with high cognitive autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Similarly, David launched a pasta manufacturer which employs people with ASD. They’ve also worked with Massachusetts General Hospital’s Aspire, which provides social and therapeutic support to members of the ASD community.
That desire to give back also burns bright for their alma mater, to which they have given a transformative gift which will benefit generations of students.
“This is essentially where we started our lives,” says David, who has served on Hartwick’s Board of Trustees since 2002, recently completing a second term as chair.
