PAUL SMITHS, N.Y. — To administrators of the financially troubled college here, Joan Weill’s appearance on campus more than 20 years ago may have seemed like the arrival of a fairy godmother.

Mrs. Weill, the wife of the Wall Street billionaire Sanford I. Weill, did not graduate from the institution. But she apparently took a liking to it when she visited the unassuming Paul Smith’s College on the shore of Lower St. Regis Lake.

As the only four-year college in the six-million-acre Adirondack Park, Paul Smith’s is well known in the region for its hotel-management and wildlife and forestry programs. The college’s $36.6 million annual budget is both an economic driver and a source of pride and identity for the rural community in northern New York State. Its student body of about 1,000 doubles the area’s population.

For more than two decades, Mrs. Weill has been actively involved in the college’s development and governance, and has served on the board for 19 years. During her tenure, the college added its four-year baccalaureate program; it previously offered two-year degrees in its programs. She and her husband donated millions of dollars to the college over the years. Their contributions helped build a new library and a student center, both of which are named for her.