Brown U. Lands $20 Million to Support Student Veterans

A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:

Brown University

Joseph Healey gave $20 million to back the university’s plan to double the number of student veterans enrolled as undergraduates by 2024. Of the total, $10 million will be used now to create the Elaine and Joseph Healey Scholarship for Veterans, and the remaining $10 million is a planned gift that will be used to establish a scholarship for students in Brown’s Resumed Undergraduate Education (RUE) program, which enrolls students who were unable to attend college earlier in their lives.

Healey, a U.S. Army veteran, co-founded HealthCor Management, an investment management firm in New York that focuses on global health care and life-science equity securities. He did not attend Brown but has family ties to the university.

He is the father of two Brown students, and as a child Healey participated in campus activities while his mother — a RUE student who was raising Healey and his brother on her own — completed her bachelor’s degree. She graduated from Brown in 1980.

Eastern Virginia Medical School

Lawrence and Janice Goldrich donated $15 million to establish the Lawrence J. Goldrich Institute for Integrated NeuroHealth, which will focus on addressing the health care needs of those diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders and cognitive and memory disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease; and patients in need of palliative care.

Lawrence Goldrich founded Larrymore Organization, a real-estate management and development firm in Virginia Beach, Va. Janice Goldrich said in a news release that she and her husband gave a lot of thought to how to help improve care for people living with neurodegenerative diseases.

“Larry’s personal struggle with Parkinson’s Disease forced us to realize that the facilities available for treatment and education were limited, adding to the frustration of simply living with the disease,” she said.

Villanova University

John and Jana Scarpa gave $15 million through their John F. Scarpa Foundation to support the Charles Widger School of Law. The law-school building will be named John F. Scarpa Hall.

John Scarpa co-founded the American Cellular Network Corporation and Unitel Wireless Communications Systems. The couple are longtime donors to the university.

Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences

James and Sari Tuchi pledged $8 million to advance the management of mass exposure to biohazards such as anthrax; to develop new medical devices; and to support post-trauma care, crisis communication, and other programs.

Tuchi founded and is CEO of Millennium Healthcare Solutions, a Telehealth company. The couple received life-saving treatments from experts at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

Montana State University

Norm Asbjornson donated $3 million to back a new master of science degree program in innovation and management. The new degree is aimed at helping students with backgrounds in engineering and STEM develop professional skills.

Asbjornson founded and is executive chairman of AAON, a publicly traded heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning manufacturer, in Tulsa, Okla. He earned a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering from the university in 1960, and in 2015 he gave the university $50 million for its engineering college.

Howard University

Jim and Heather Murren gave $1 million to establish the Center for Women, Gender and Global Leadership, where programs will be aimed at advancing Black women leadership. Scholars at the center will focus their research on women and gender in the United States and the global Black diaspora, and the center will provide students with scholarships and programs to connect them with women leaders, entrepreneurs, industry experts, policy makers, and social-justice advocates.

Jim Murren is a former CEO and chairman of MGM Grand, a company that owns and operates hotels and resorts. He previously served as managing director and the director of U.S. equity research for Deutsche Bank. In March he was appointed by Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak to lead a task force to coordinate private-sector support for the government response to the Covid-19 pandemic. He serves on Howard’s Board of Trustees.

Heather Murren worked is a retired financier. She served as group head for Global Consumer Products for Equity Research at Merrill Lynch and as an equity analyst for Salomon Brothers, a New York investment bank that closed in 2003, early in her career. She most recently served on President Obama’s Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity.

High Point University

James and Liz Surratt donated $1 million to establish the Surratt Scholarship within the Stout School of Education. The scholarship will be awarded to a special-education major from each academic class who intends to pursue a career working with children who have autism or similar communication disabilities.

James Surratt is a retired educator who served as superintendent of schools in Burlington and Wake Counties, N.C., Daytona Beach, Fla., and Plano, Tex.

The Surratts met as students at High Point. He graduated from the university in 1965, and she transferred to the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she finished her degree. One of the Surratt children is autistic.

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