The donors to the Trust have likely requested anonymity in part because of anti-military sentiment, said Malcolm Hill ’59, who serves as the president of the alumni fund of the Advocates—a separate fund related to ROTC.

“There’s still substantial amount of anti-ROTC feeling among those folks who make up the of the grand glorious Harvard alumni,” Hill said.

The two trustees of the Trust, Harold J. Keohane ’60 and Charles A. Cheever ’90, declined to comment.

According to Segal, several years ago the founder of the Advocates for Harvard ROTC, David Clayman ’38, suggested to the Harvard Corporation that they create an endowment that would fund ROTC costs. The Corporation said it would consider helping the Trust to set up an endowment, but Segal said he does not know what happened to the plans.

Clayman passed away a few years later.

The future status of the Trust has been called into question by the recent recognition of ROTC.

While Mawn said he imagines that the Trust “is just going to evaporate,” its fate remains unclear.

The Harvard Alumni Affairs and Development office did not respond for comment yesterday.

—Staff writer Zoe A. Y. Weinberg can be reached at zoe.weinberg@college.harvard.edu.