To the friends we made along the way

Taking stock

Their friendship extended beyond their mutual love for arts and culture. A few months after the two had reunited, they also began talking about stocks and investments.

“My father had encouraged me to put money into the stock market, and I’d been doing it for a while at that point,” says Greenberg. “When I mentioned it to Debi, she told me that she thought that Apple’s stock was undervalued and that maybe I should consider buying.”

After some cajoling, Greenberg finally decided to buy Apple stock on Monday, October 19, 1987—the day that would later become known as Black Monday. That day, the global stock market crashed and U.S. markets plunged by more than 20% in a single day.

“I showed up to the broker’s office as the markets were crashing. There was a lot going on and I wasn’t able to open an account to buy, so I came back the next day. By that time, the price had plummeted even further and so I bought more stocks than I had originally planned,” she says.

The nudge from Coleman paid off as Apple continued to grow over the following decades, as did Greenberg’s shares in the company.

Honoring a friendship, carrying on a legacy

Greenberg and Coleman remained friends for decades and continued to stay connected to Brown. (Though Greenberg credits the latter to the efforts of Coleman, a Brown Corporation member from 1994 to 2000, who made sure Greenberg never missed a reunion.) They even branched out from Brunonia and made new friends together on their travels. They were planning a cruise with some friends they’d met on a previous trip, but before they could Coleman tragically passed away in October 2021.

In the months following her death, Greenberg grieved the loss of her friend and reflected on how much of an impact Coleman had on her life. To honor her friend, Greenberg established a scholarship at Brown in Coleman’s name.

“It was because of Debi that I bought this Apple stock, and a portion of that stock is what I’m donating to start this scholarship fund. It’s a way of giving back to Brown, which was important to both of us, and thanking her for all she did for me,” says Greenberg.

By transferring her highly appreciated Apple securities to Brown to create the scholarship, Greenberg was able to avoid capital gains and received a charitable deduction for the full fair market value of the securities.

Greenberg chose to direct the Debi Coleman Scholarship Fund to first-generation college students, an accomplishment shared by Coleman and Greenberg’s father. Coleman, who attended Brown thanks to financial aid, had made sure that opportunity was available to others through scholarships and by funding her nieces’ and nephews’ college educations.

“Both Debi and I believed in the power of higher education to better lives and open the door to greater opportunities. She would have appreciated something being done in her honor that was not only charitable but would help future generations of students like her.”