Billionaire Robert Hale Gifts a Thousand Dollars Each to UMass Dartmouth Grads

Robert Hale, the billionaire CEO of Granite Telecommunications, made a surprise announcement earlier this month while speaking at an undergraduate commencement ceremony at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Pointing to a nearby truck near the end of his speech, Hale revealed that it contained thousands of cash-filled envelopes for the university’s 1,200 graduating students.

Duffel bags were brought up on the stage, and each student received two $500 envelopes marked “gift” and “give”—the...