U. of Miami Business School Lands $89 Million, and a Nature Preserve Gets $45 Million (Gifts Roundup)

A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:

University of Miami

Allan and Patricia Herbert gave $89 million to support the business school, which will be named for the Herberts. The gift will be used to establish a collection of five academic centers that will focus on entrepreneurship, leadership and governance, behavioral decision-making theory, business analytics and technology, and global operations and strategy.

Allan Herbert is a former group executive and insurance company president at Teledyne, Inc. Patti Herbert worked for the Grubb and Ellis commercial real-estate firm. The Herberts met while students at the university in1954. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business in 1955 and an MBA in 1958. She earned a bachelor’s degree in business in 1957.

Banning Ranch Conservancy

Frank and Joann Randall pledged $45 million to help the nonprofit purchase Banning Ranch, a 401-acre parcel of land near Newport Beach, Calif., and open it to the public as a permanent park and coastal nature preserve.

Frank Randall is a commercial real-estate developer. He and his wife gave the nonprofit, which has been fighting commercial development of the site for two decades, $5 million toward the effort in 2012.

University of Virginia School of Engineering

Greg Olsen pledged $25 million to hire more professors, attract Ph.D. students, and provide the dean of engineering and the chair of the department with money to support new programs.

Olsen earned a Ph.D. from the university’s Materials Science and Engineering Department in 1971 and worked as a research scientist for RCA Laboratories’ David Sarnoff Research Center. He later co-founded two manufacturing companies: Epitaxx, a manufacturer of fiber-optic detectors, which sold for $12 million in 1990; and Sensors Unlimited, a near-infrared camera manufacturer that sold for $600 million in 2000.

In 2005, he became the third private citizen to orbit the Earth during a trip to the International Space Station.

University of Kentucky College of Law

David and Dianne Rosenberg donated $20 million to endow the College of Law, which will be named the J. David Rosenberg College of Law, and to pay for scholarships and professorships.

David Rosenberg is a senior partner in the Cincinnati law firm Keating, Muething & Klekamp, where he has practiced since 1974. He is a 1973 graduate of the UK College of Law.

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Louis Simpson and Kimberly Querrey gave $10 million to establish the Simpson Querrey Center for Neurogenetics, where researchers will study the genetic and environmental factors that contribute to diseases such as Parkinson’s and other genetic neurological disorders.

Simpson is the chairman of the investment firm SQ Advisors and a former chief executive officer for capital operations at the auto-insurance company GEICO. He graduated from Northwestern in 1958. In 2017, the couple gave the medical school $10 million for related research. They appeared on the Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50 list of the biggest donors in 2015.

University of the Pacific

John Chase pledged $10 million to back the university’s Community Involvement Program, an effort started 50 years ago to help low-income Stockton, Calif., students earn college degrees.

Chase leads Chase Chevrolet, an auto-dealership franchise acquired by his grandfather, King Merrill Chase, in 1944.

University of Maryland Children’s Hospital

Chris and Jill Davis gave $3 million to build a pediatric catheterization lab and operating room.

Chris Davis is the first baseman for the Baltimore Orioles, a Major League Baseball team. Since 2016, the couple have been volunteer “ambassadors” at the hospital where they regularly visit sick children and help the hospital raise public awareness for childhood illnesses.

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

Maria Di Mento directs the annual Philanthropy 50, a comprehensive report on America’s top donors. She covers wealthy philanthropists, arts organizations, and key trends, among other topics. She recently wrote about Michael Bloomberg’s philanthropy as he considers becoming a presidential candidate. Email Maria or follow her on Twitter .