Magnate's missing millions: Columbia University mining program runs dry

• By ISABEL VINCENT and MELISSA KLEIN
• Last Updated: 6:42 AM, August 25, 2013
• Posted: 1:39 AM, August 25, 2013

Mining magnate Henry Krumb left millions to Columbia University in the 1950s, but you’d have to dig deep to find the cash or his legacy today.

Krumb’s gift to Columbia totaled $16 million. The university got the first part when he died childless in 1958 and the rest when his wife died four years later, making it the largest gift in the university’s history at the time.

Krumb’s wishes were to “make the School of Mines one of the best known and largest schools of its kind in the world,” according to a copy of his will obtained by The Post.

The millionaire, who pioneered a technique to evaluate minerals and was a director of a large mining company, set up a scholarship fund and endowed the “Krumb Chair of Mining.”

HENRY KRUMB Left university $16 million.

In 1964, 100 years after Columbia opened the first such mining school in the country, it was renamed in honor of Krumb.

Krumb’s gift was contingent upon Columbia continuing to offer two degrees — engineer of mines and metallurgical engineer.

But in 1998, Columbia essentially did away with its traditional mining courses and replaced them with a program in “earth and environmental engineering.”

The Krumb chair in mining has been vacant for at least two decades. Another endowed chair, the Stanley-Thompson chair in chemical metallurgy, has been empty for about five years.

The Columbia course catalog lists no specific mining classes, with only some engineering courses that are related to the subject, according to an expert who reviewed offerings for The Post.

“In essence, they don’t have a credible program in mining engineering, and they have two positions in mining-related topics that have been vacant basically forever,” said Sam Marcuson, a Columbia graduate and metallurgy expert.

Krumb’s will specified that if the mining program folded, and the two degrees were not offered, at least half of the endowment should be transferred to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, with some scholarship fund money going to Lenox Hill Hospital.

But it remains a mystery what happened to the Krumb cash.

Columbia insists it still offers degrees in mining engineering and metallurgy and provides scholarships. A spokeswoman wouldn’t comment on why the Krumb chair was vacant or how the money to fund it was spent.

Resat Keles, who studied at Columbia and has researched the trust fund, said he understood that Sloan-Kettering reached a $1 million settlement with Columbia several years ago.

A Sloan-Kettering spokeswoman refused to provide any information.

A spokesman for Lenox Hill said the hospital was satisfied with Columbia’s assurance that it still granted mining degrees.