07/31/2025
Honored to share the story of Lincoln Hills, Colorado, another project Robert Smith — Denver native — is supporting.
https://www.ijn.com/african-american-catskills-national-historic-landmark-lincoln-hills-winks-panorama-lodge/
Robert F. Smith: The Billionaire Who Hit “Delete” on $34 Million of Student Debt.Morehouse College, 2019. The caps were tossed, the tears were flowing, and then, Robert F. Smith stepped to the mic and erased the financial trauma of nearly 400 lives in real time.
“I’m paying off your student loans. All of them.”
Mic drop. Reality paused.
Smith didn’t come from money. He came from Denver grit, raised by two teachers who planted the gospel of education deep in his bones. A chemical engineer turned software investor, he founded Vista Equity Partners in 2000 and turned it into a $100 billion tech empire. But this wasn’t about flexing wealth.
This was a seismic act of reparative justice.
Those 396 Morehouse men didn’t just walk into adulthood with degrees. They walked out unshackled, debt-free, and charged with a mission: “Pay it forward.” That was his only ask. Not applause. Not legacy. Just impact in motion.
Smith has done this before, funding schools, saving cultural institutions, building pipelines for underrepresented kids in tech. But the Morehouse moment? That was a generational reset button.
Because let’s be real: wealth isn’t just about what you earn, it’s about what you don’t owe.
And in that moment, Robert F. Smith didn’t just change 396 futures.
He redefined what Black philanthropy can look like when it stops asking for permission.
