Investor Bill Miller promises $75 million to Johns Hopkins University philosophy department

For legendarily successful stockpicker William H. “Bill” Miller III, the question was not so much philosophical as practical.

“What am I going to do with this money, which I obviously can’t take with me?” the now -67-year-old fund manager asked himself.

The answer Miller came up with, at least for $75 million of his fortune, was to give it to the Johns Hopkins University philosophy department.

Tuesday’s announcement of the eye-popping sum, the largest ever to any of the university’s humanities departments, quickly spread through ivory towers across the country, where contemplating concepts like existentialism and ontology gave way however temporarily to marveling at this number in the high eight figures.

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