Emulating his father, Mellon eschewed philanthropy for much of his life, but in the early 1900s, he began donating to local organizations such as the YMCA. Mellon committed to his first large-scale act of philanthropy in 1913, when he and his brother, Richard, established the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research as a department of the University of Pittsburgh. In 1965, the institute merged with the Carnegie Institute of Technology to form Carnegie Mellon University. Mellon also served as an alumni president and trustee of the University of Pittsburgh, and made several major donations to the school, including the land on which the Cathedral of Learning and Heinz Chapel were constructed. In total it is estimated that Mellon donated over $43 million to the University of Pittsburgh.