Father of Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Miguel Bezos and his Wife Donate $12 Million to a Catholic School for Student Scholarships

Miguel Bezos, the father of Jeff Bezos who founded Amazon, with his wife Jacklyn, donated $12 Million to a Catholic school in Delaware, USA. Miguel was an immigrant from Cuba and attended Catholic school in Delaware as a teen. His donation will form part of a scholarship fund to help students.

In a 2026 interview with the National Museum of American History, Miguel said,

"My cousin Angel (who came out of Cuba one day after I did) and I were sent to Wilmington, Delaware, where we attended high school. There were eighteen of us, Cuban boys between the ages of fifteen and seventeen attending high school, and we lived in a house run by Catholic Charities. There was a priest in charge of us, and it was a tremendous experience for me. I'm sure you’ve heard sad stories about what terrible experiences some of the Peter Pan kids had, but for us in Wilmington, we had each other, and we became very close. To this day, a lot of us still talk to each other and visit once in a while. We also visit with the priest that was in charge of us. In the middle of all the chaos, it was a wonderful experience."

Here is the Announcement from the Salesian Catholic School:

It is with gratitude and excitement that Salesianum announces an historic $12,000,000 gift from Jacklyn and Miguel Bezos ’63 to the Salesianum School Endowment. $10,000,000 of the gift will be used immediately to establish the Rev. James P. Byrne, OSFS Memorial Scholarship, which will fund 24 full-need students.  In addition to receiving a full-tuition scholarship, Fr. Byrne Scholars will also receive funding for the incidental expenses that so often form barriers for underserved students, including books, retreats, service trips, AP test fees, prom tickets, etc.

This extraordinary gift is one of the largest ever to a Catholic high school; and more importantly, it will enable Salesianum to radically advance its mission to provide access to students regardless of their financial situation. Saint Francis de Sales said “Those who have made great progress will constantly press ahead, never for a moment thinking they have reached their goal.”  With this in mind, Jackie and Mike are also matching commitments of $100,000 or more to the endowment over the next three years - up to $2,000,000 - seeking to inspire others to provide access and opportunity to Salesianum by creating scholarships of their own.

Source: https://www.salesianum.org/jacklyn-and-miguel-bezos-63-historic-gift - Image screenshot from source