Hobart and William Smith Colleges

14 July 2026 • Alums Full Circle By Mary Stone

Linda Arrington ’88 honors her mother’s legacy in education with a $400,000 planned gift supporting future generations of HWS students.

Five years ago, Trustee Linda Arrington ’88 left her office at JPMorgan Chase for an appointment with her colleague and fellow HWS Trustee Eric Stein '89, when an assistant on his floor stopped her.

The woman glanced at Linda’s last name, then asked an unexpected question: Did she have a mother who was a counselor at the College of Staten Island?

“When I said yes, the woman’s face lit up,” says Arrington.

As a Professor and the Chair of the Career Development Department there, Linda’s mother, Mary Ellen Arrington, had helped guide the woman, encouraging her, helping shape her path after college and leaving an impression that endured long after graduation.

More than 30 years later, and the woman still remembered her.

“She said, ‘Please tell your mother, Mary Ellen, where I went in my life, and that she made a difference in mine.’” Linda recalls.

Linda describes the encounter as a “full circle moment.” It crystallized her long-held belief that learning creates ripple effects that continue long after students leave the classroom.

Earlier this year, Linda pledged a $400,000 planned gift to Hobart and William Smith through the Wheeler Society, honoring her mother’s legacy and ensuring future generations of students benefit from the same kind of transformative support that shaped her life.

Before her mother passed away from cancer three years ago, Linda was able to share the “full circle moment” she encountered at JPMorgan Chase with her.

“She loved that story,” Linda says. “She loved education, and she was really proud of my involvement with HWS as a Trustee”.  Linda fondly recalls the valuable advice her mother – an expert in education – provided as a sounding board when it came to Board matters.”

“It feels like I get to continue her legacy through my gift, through my life,” she says. “I don’t have children, so I get to have an impact on the future by the virtue of providing access for others.”

At UBS, where Linda currently serves as Regional Head of Marketing for the Americas, she brings to bare the art of and the science of connecting with the hearts and minds of clients by leveraging the analytical mindset she sharpened as a biology major on the pre-med track at HWS.

“The scientific method is hypothesis testing,” Arrington says. “You challenge assumptions. You build a thesis. You test it. You measure the results. You learn and adjust. This is foundational to a marketing framework.”

That analytical rigor came largely from her mother, while her father — a filmmaker with a major Hollywood studio — nurtured Linda’s creative instincts, her love of storytelling and creating human connections. Linda is a self-professed “left and right-brained explorer of creating brand love with measurable rigor.”

“For me, it goes back to what Maya Angelou said, ‘…people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel,’” Linda reminisces. “My parents used to entertain a lot, but my dad was the one who set the environment, and he was a phenomenal cook. Thankfully, I inherited those skills; I love to host dinner parties and create memorable experiences.”

Linda’s sense of responsibility to community instilled by her parents and grandparents guided her from HWS to Columbia University, where she earned her MBA, and across her career in marketing including leadership roles at global iconic brands like The Estée Lauder Companies, CHANEL and the Benetton Group.

And, since she was a 27-year-old rising executive, Linda has donated her time and money to HWS, returning regularly to serve as a member of the William Smith Alumnae Council from 1991 to 1993 and again from 2001 to 2009.

Linda has served on the HWS Board of Trustees since 2001, over which time she has mentored students through programs including the Multicultural Networking Conference and the NYC Fashion Experience career trek organized by the Salisbury Center for Career, Professional and Experiential Education.

For Linda, making a planned gift now — at the height of her career — reflects a philosophy shaped partly by personal loss, but mostly about making an indelible mark.

“For tomorrow is never promised,” she says.

While her father passed away just five year after she graduated from college, around the time she started volunteering at HWS, the more recent loss of her mother, she says, made her think differently about legacy and the importance of acting intentionally while there is still time to make a difference.

That perspective resonated during this year’s Commencement at HWS, where student speaker Randy Hong ’26 urged graduates to remember the people whose sacrifices and encouragement shaped their success. Quoting a Vietnamese proverb, Hong reminded graduates: “When drinking water, remember the source from which it came.” 

Linda says that sentiment felt poignantly familiar. “Throughout my career, HWS has remained an important source of possibility and connection, including lifelong friendships,” she says. “I owe so much of my personal and professional successes to this community.”

Top of the page: Trustee Linda Arrington ’88 is the Regional Head of Marketing for the Americas at UBS