Stephen Ashley, a longtime Cornell University trustee and benefactor whose $55 million gift established the Cornell CALS Ashley School of Global Development and the Environment, died July 29 in Richmond, Ontario County. He was 86.
Ashley, a 1962 Cornell graduate who earned an MBA there in 1964, served on the Cornell University Council for 55 years and the university's Board of Trustees for 16 years. Cornell said his service and advocacy for the university spanned more than five decades.
Raised in a small farming community in Ontario County, Ashley maintained strong ties to upstate New York and Cornell. He met his wife, Janice Gilbert Ashley, at the university, and their daughter and two grandsons also attended Cornell.
His 2025 gift created the Ashley School within the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. He also endowed professorships in applied economics, management and behavioral economics, along with awards recognizing undergraduate advising.
Ashley received the CALS Outstanding Alumni Award in 1998 and Cornell's Frank H.T. Rhodes Exemplary Alumni Service Award in 2016. He also helped fund interdisciplinary research through the Cornell Institute for Digital Agriculture.
At the time of his death, Ashley was chairman and CEO of The Ashley Companies, a Rochester-based real estate firm. He was predeceased by his wife and is survived by three children, five grandchildren and a great-granddaughter.
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