"I'm a scholar when it comes to the almighty dollar"

One thing I have come to figure out over the years is that there are as many ways of doing things as there are things to do.

Case in point: someone who attended the City College of New York at some point for undergraduate and graduate studies feels grateful toward his/her alma mater. That's nice.

So he or she sent a box full of $50 and $100 bills to the university, adding up to the pleasant tune of $180,000.

And you hear about this all the time, someone who is graduated from a certain school, goes on to find professional success, and wishes to thank the school.

But most of them would sign their name to the gift. This person did not!

City College Physics Chair Vinod Menon, Ph.D, says he's never seen this sort of cabbage before "... in a box, in cash, except for in movies."

This is not the real box of money, though.

In fact, that box o' bucks arrived on campus in September, 2020, which was, you'll recall, the middle of the Great Exodus. Until just recently, Menon had not been in his classroom where the long green was dropped off and sat, unpopened and unsecured. 

"There was bubble wrap, I opened the bubble wrap and there was all this money," Menon said. "So I closed the thing up, held it on my chest, called up the dean."

There is a return address on the package, sure, but it lists one "Kyle Paisley" from an address in Pensacola, Florida. Big surprise: no one at that address exists by that name.

Dr. Menon has no idea where the box came from, but said it's possible it was a student.

"I don't know the answer to that," he said. "It's clearly someone who benefitted from being here. It's somebody who did a undergraduate and master's degree."

There was a vaguely-worded letter in the box that was rather sparse on clues:

"Assuming that you are a bit curious as to why I'm doing this... the excellent opportunity available to me..." that led to "a long, productive, immensely rewarding to me, scientific career."

A puzzled Menon says, "If the person doesn't want to come forward, I respect their decision to do so, but what I will in my capacity to do, is do what the person wants us to do, which is move it forward, give it to the deserving students," Menon said.

(One thing we know for sure is that Dr Menon is not a professor of easily-read English Composition...)

The university sent the letter and the loot to the FBI, and once the G-people cleared it, the board of trustees had to vote to accept the gift and approve the plan to turn it into scholarship money.

It's all set: The Physics and Math departments have decided to make awards of two full undergraduate tuition scholarships (@$7,500)  for the next 12 years.

"It is wonderful in so many ways, it still shows that, it's all good, everything is good," Menon said.