George E. Crothers

His monetary gifts to his alma mater made possible the construction of two student residences on the Stanford campus—one named for himself, the other dedicated to the memory of his mother.

[1] The family moved to San Jose, California, in 1883, and George enrolled at Stanford in 1891 as part of the new university's "pioneer class".

[2] Together with his brother, Crothers identified and corrected numerous major legal defects in the terms of the university's founding grant[6] and successfully lobbied for an amendment to the California state constitution granting Stanford an exemption from taxation on its educational property[7]—a change which allowed Jane Stanford to donate her stock holdings to the university.

[11][12] Even after Crothers' retirement from the bench and his return to private law practice, he was commonly referred to as "Judge" throughout the rest of his life.

[20][21][22] The name "Crothers Memorial" is commonly abbreviated to "Cro Mem" — a short form which was the inspiration for the early personal computer company Cromemco.