John William Sterling

John William Sterling (May 12, 1844 - July 5, 1918) was a philanthropist, corporate attorney, and major benefactor to Yale University.

John William Sterling was born in Stratford, Connecticut. He graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in 1864 and was admitted to the bar three years later. He obtained an M.A. degree in 1874 and an LL.D. from Columbia Law School in 1893. He became a corporate lawyer in New York, and helped found the law firm of Shearman & Sterling in 1873.

Around 1870, Sterling met James Orville Bloss, his intimate friend for the next fifty years. Historian Jonathan Ned Katz suggests that theirs was also a sexual relationship.

As a lawyer, Sterling represented Jay Gould, James Fisk, the National City Bank, and Standard Oil. Sterling's partner Thomas G. Shearman defended Reverend Henry Ward Beecher in his adultery trial.

On his death in 1918, Sterling left $18 million to Yale, at the time the largest non-founding contribution made by an individual to a private university -- equivalent to about $180 million in 2003. A portion of this was used to fund the Sterling Professorships, and other portions were used to build the Sterling Memorial Library, Sterling Divinity Quadrangle, the School of Medicine, Trumbull College, and the Hall of Graduate Studies.

Yale's law school is located in the Sterling Law Buildings.

Sterling is entombed at Woodlawn Cemetery.

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