U. of Chicago’s School of Social Work Gets $75 Million

A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:

University of Chicago

James and Paula Crown pledged $75 million to expand the work of the School of Social Service Administration, where research is focused on addressing interconnected social challenges such as educational inequality, health disparities, crime and violence, poverty, and child and family welfare. The school will be renamed the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice.

James Crown is president of Henry Crown and Company, an investment company in Chicago that his grandfather Henry Crown started in 1959. Henry Crown, a billionaire industrialist who died in 1990, also founded Material Service Corporation in 1919. The company merged with General Dynamics in 1959. Paula Crown is a multimedia artist in Chicago.

College of the Holy Cross

Agnes Neill Williams left $23.5 million to match all new and increased annual gifts in support of financial aid. The bequests kicks off the college’s new campaign to raise $40 million for need-based financial aid by June 2022 and ensure that all admitted students have the opportunity to attend Holy Cross regardless of their financial need.

Williams, who died last year, was one of 10 in the first class of women to attend law school at Georgetown University, earning a law degree in 1954. She then practiced law with the well-known defense attorney Edward Bennett Williams. They later married in 1960.

Edward Williams graduated from Holy Cross in 1941 and went on to found the powerful Washington law firm of Williams & Connolly. He died in 1988. The couple’s ties to the college stretches back three generations: their son Ned graduated from Holy Cross in 1983, and their granddaughter Adair Bender graduated in 2012.

New Jersey Performing Arts Center

Betty Wold Johnson bequeathed $20 million for endowment. The gifts she gave the center during her lifetime went to support maintenance and capital projects so the center’s leaders have decided to use her bequest to pay for the long-term upkeep of current and future buildings on the performing-arts center’s campus.

Wold Johnson, who died in May, was the matriarch of a family whose ancestors founded the Johnson & Johnson medical-device and health care-products corporation. Her first husband was Robert Wood Johnson III, president of Johnson & Johnson and grandson of the multinational corporation’s founder.

During World War II, Wold Johnson served in the U.S. Navy as a WAVE, a naval-reserve squad for women, and was stationed in Corpus Christi, Tex. She also helped train fighter pilots in flight simulators at Rhode Island’s Naval Air Station.

Colby-Sawyer College

William and Sonja Carlson Davidow gave $10.2 million to bolster the college’s endowment, create new professorships, support scholarships, and pay for maintenance and improvements to the Davidow Center for Art + Design.

William Davidow is partner emeritus at Mohr Davidow Ventures, a venture-capital firm in San Mateo, Calif. He previously served in executive positions at Intel Corporation, Hewlett Packard, and General Electric. Sonja Carlson Davidow graduated from the college in 1956.

Villanova University

Martin McGuinn donated $10 million to advance faculty research and to increase financial and other support for veterans attending Villanova.

McGuinn retired in 2006 as chairman and chief executive officer of Mellon Financial Corporation (now known as BNY Mellon). Earlier in his career, he served as managing counsel for the Singer Company. He was a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps and earned his bachelor of arts degree from Villanova in 1964 and a juris doctorate from the university’s Charles Widger School of Law in 1967.

To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated regularly.