 He was a well-known philanthropist.Beginning with a donation of fountains on the plaza before Low Memorial Library and a residence building for students in 1903, Hartley Hall, that he and his aunt, Helen Hartley Jenkins, donated, he provided many gifts to Columbia University , and numerous other institutions and organizations.After his death his family and estate underwrote the construction of Dodge Physical Fitness Center at Columbia, and the university renamed another of its buildings Dodge Hall in his honor.