MIT Journey Comes Full Circle Through a Planned Gift
Institute “wove itself into my life,” says EECS senior lecturer
Gim Hom SB ’71, SM ’72, SM ’73 was the first in his family to attend college, thanks to the financial aid he got from MIT. While at the Institute, he married Mildred Cheung, and the couple lived in married student housing. Throughout his career, he’s had only three job interviews—all with MIT alumni.
“MIT wove itself into my life,” he says. His first two jobs as an engineer were at Texas Instruments and then Digital Equipment Corporation. “After retiring from DEC, I retired to—where else?—MIT to teach,” says Hom, a senior lecturer in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS).
In gratitude for these opportunities, Hom and Cheung have given steadily to EECS, the MIT Sloan School of Management, and MIT Sailing over the years.
“The financial aid that I got when I was an undergrad came from the generosity of alumni,” says Hom. “In that spirit, it’s only fitting that I give back.”
In 2019, they decided to make a larger gift to the Institute.
They had some highly appreciated stock and decided that establishing a charitable remainder unitrust (CRUT) was the best way to make use of it. The plan provides an annual income, with the balance passing to MIT at the end of their lives and used in a manner of their choosing.
“There are three reasons why a charitable remainder trust makes sense,” says Hom. “Number one is that I’m able to get the full value of the donation without capital gains tax. So there were some tax advantages to the CRUT.
“The second one is that it provides some income to both of us,” he continues. “And finally, the third reason is that upon our passing, MIT would get the benefits of the remainder.”
Hom, who received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from MIT and a master’s degree from MIT Sloan, says he would like the gift to help EECS maintain its QS World University Ranking. “I think science is key to our future, and so my hope is that MIT continue to attract the best and the brightest,” he says.
Cheung, a retired piano teacher, expresses similar interest in bolstering the Institute’s ability to address challenges. “I’d like it to help solve some of the world’s problems,” she says. She and Hom enjoy attending reunions at which students talk about their research. “I find that really exciting,” she says, “and I think it’s all the more important in the current environment.”
Full circle
When Hom returned to MIT in 2005, as a lecturer, he thought he’d just stay a few years, until he hit 65. “But it turns out I had such a great time that I remain at MIT to this day,” he says. His schedule is now reduced by choice so he and Cheung can travel. In his spare time, he volunteers as an educational counselor, meeting and interviewing high school students who are applying to MIT.
Of his many accomplishments, the one he says he treasures the most is receiving the student-nominated IEEE/ACM Best Advisor Award.
The admiration runs both ways. In his medical device design and digital systems laboratory courses, Hom says, he is continually struck by his students’ inventiveness. “I’ve been teaching these courses for about 12 years, and what amazes me is that every year students come up with ideas that I have not thought of,” he says.
He also sees in his students a thread that runs back to his own early years at the Institute. “I had a great time as an undergrad at MIT, and we did a whole bunch of things that you won’t be able to publish,” he says with a laugh. “I can attest that MIT students have not changed over the years.”
He recalls how impressed he was as an undergraduate by the openness of MIT’s campus, its labs, and, in particular, the sailing pavilion. “The first thing I did for my PE class at MIT was to take up sailing,” he says. “My fondest memories were working in the labs and sailing during my first term at MIT, and the parties at my fraternity, Theta Delta Chi.”
He has since joined a larger fraternity, that of MIT alumni. “If I’m wearing my Brass Rat, it’s very common for people to say, ‘Oh, you’re an MIT grad.’ And they introduce themselves,” Hom says.
After all these years, the school remains inseparable from the fabric of his life.
Written by Kimberly Ashton and published on May 16, 2026.
