Erik and Atch Stapper dedicate $2 million to advance international education at Lasell University

Thanks to the generosity of Erik J. Stapper and his late wife, Antoinette “Atch” Ruinen Stapper ’56, Lasell will continue to advance international education initiatives, including scholarship support for international students and life-changing overseas service-learning programs.

Through their estate plan, Erik and Atch dedicated $2 million to strengthen the Mary McNamara ’56 and Antoinette “Atch” Ruinen ’56 Scholarship Fund for International Students or Studies and to support Shoulder to Shoulder and other international education programs. The gifts were made on the 150th anniversary of Lasell’s founding in 2001 and this year’s 175th anniversary. When realized, this extraordinary commitment will be one of the largest gifts in Lasell’s history and a defining investment in the University’s future.

“We thank Erik and Atch for their enormously generous gift to support Lasell students,” Lasell President Eric M. Turner said. “The world today is greatly in need of enhanced intercultural understanding, and Lasell is proud that our students will have the opportunity to build bridges between different cultures.”

“Atch was extremely enthusiastic and happy to enable many Lasell students to experience international travel and learn about other cultures,” said Erik. "Later in life, she was always delighted to hear about the latest travels of Mary McNamara, her Lasell roommate for two years, and her husband, Richard Nathan, who frequently represented the U.S. in foreign academic and government circles. Living and traveling internationally enriched our four lives.”

Both Erik and Atch, his wife of 64 years who died in 2024, came to the United States as 15-year-old Dutch students in the fall of 1950, having suffered nutrition deprivation amid the Nazi occupation during World War II. Although born in The Hague, The Netherlands, Atch spent her first five years living in Indonesia. During the war years she lived in her native country, later moving to Curacao. Erik had only lived in The Netherlands.

In the fall of 1954, they met a world away on the Lasell Junior College campus where Atch was a freshman. Erik was a Harvard University sophomore. They married in 1960.

For decades, Erik and Atch turned his biannual, five-day international tax law conferences into lengthy trips abroad. Their travels took them to all seven continents, the Arctic, and countries that no longer exist. They eschewed large, guided tours for more intimate experiences that permitted them to meet local people and experience a culture beyond museums, castles, and popular tourist destinations. Atch would always try to learn words in the local language.

Erik was a partner at Stapper & Van Doren in Manhattan for 43 years and was highly regarded for his knowledge of international estate planning. He advised, published, and lectured on cross-border tax planning for dual nationals or residents, small businesses, and philanthropies. He continued to work with clients past his 90th birthday.

At Atch’s 40th Lasell Reunion in 1996, they joined the preconstruction wait list to become residents of Lasell Village. Beginning in 2000, they divided their time between New York and Lasell Village. They moved full time to the Village during the pandemic in 2020.

Erik served on Lasell’s Board of Trustees for 23 years, including five as the governing body’s chair. During his tenure the student population grew to nearly 2,000. He was also a trustee for Lasell Village, serving from preconstruction through opening and its expansion.