Students Find Developer Gruff, Generous

Stephanie Lawrence graduated from Dickinson with the tuition help of Samuel G. Rose and is working in his office for a fourth summer. (Juana Arias -- The Washington Post)

Washington developer Samuel G. Rose, a stocky man with unruly hair, yelled into the speaker phone on his desk, which was covered with stacks of paper and pictures of his safari outings to Kenya and bone fishing trips in Florida. "You can't just walk off the job because you don't like it," he said into the phone. He leaned his leather chair forward, put down the art catalog he was flipping through and said, "What the hell are you thinking?"

For 10 minutes he berated Marcus Sykes, a 20-year-old Bowie State University junior, who was on the other end of the call. Rose hired Sykes to work this summer at one of the large office buildings his company owns near Union Station. Sykes was supposed to sweep the floors, clean the windows, accept and deliver packages, change light bulbs, and smile at passersby. But after less than an hour on the job, Sykes quit, saying he could do better than the $8.75-an-hour job Rose was offering.

Sykes tried to appease Rose by telling him about his 3.75 grade point average last semester. But Rose responded: "Good grades are all fine and good, but you've got to have work ethic and principles. You have to carry things out."

Rose, 68, abruptly ended the call. Then he announced to those within earshot in his office that he would continue to pay part of Sykes' tuition this fall.

Sykes and with 30 other students, are learning about Rose's idea of philanthropy. Rose has given $589,400 to his alma mater, Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa., to set up a fund to help minority students pay for their college costs. He has also helped other students like Sykes.

"It's not enough to just cut checks and throw money at them," Rose said. "You've got to have somebody stand up for you and to push you a little bit."

"He can be really demanding," Sykes said. "But he's helping people out. He's giving back."

Sykes's mother, Janet Jefferson, 42, a Pentagon secretary who is going to night school to earn her associate degree in business management, said she is thankful Rose has taken an interest in her son. "He's taken Marcus under his wing," she said from her Fort Washington home. "It's hard when you're a young male and trying to make it in the world."

Stephanie Lawrence, 21, of Upper Marlboro who said Rose has paid about 13 percent -- or $20,000 over four years -- of her college costs, said that she admires how Rose has built up his business and that she has gotten used to his gruff ways.

"Even when he's barking at you, I don't get rattled," said Lawrence, who graduated in May. "I like to think of myself as a tough person."