Gifts Roundup: Calif. Businessman Gives $5 Million for San Jose Flood Aid

A roundup of notable gifts compiled by The Chronicle:

Chapman University

Dale and Sarah Ann Fowler pledged $45 million to establish an engineering school.

Mr. Fowler founded Fowler Properties, a real-estate-development company in Orange County, Calif. He graduated from Chapman in 1958 with a degree in economics. In 2013, the Fowlers gave the university $55 million for its law school, which was named for them.

Boston Medical Center

John and Eilene Grayken gave $25 million to establish the Grayken Center for Addiction Medicine. The money will back research, training, and prevention and treatment programs.

Mr. Grayken founded the private-equity firm Lone Star Funds. He was born in the Boston area but renounced his U.S. citizenship in 1999 when he became a citizen of Ireland.

Carnegie Mellon University

Frank Brunckhorst gave $10 million to the Frank Brunckhorst Presidential Scholarship Endowment, which provides financial aid to undergraduates.

Mr. Brunckhorst earned a bachelor’s degree in business from Carnegie Mellon in 1987. He is a former chairman of Boar’s Head Provisions, a supplier of delicatessen meats and related products. The company was founded by Mr. Brunckhorst’s great-grandfather and namesake in 1905.

The donor has served on the university’s Board of Trustees since 2005 and made his first gift for scholarships in 1996.

Florida Gulf Coast University

Textbook author Elaine Nicpon Marieb made a five-year, $10 million commitment to the College of Health Professions & Social Work, which has been renamed the Elaine Nicpon Marieb College of Health & Human Services.

Ms. Marieb is well known among nursing students for her books on human anatomy and physiology. She previously gave the university $5 million in 2012. Her latest gift will be used to create and support a collection of faculty-led clinical centers.

San Jose Flood Victims Relief Fund

Kieu Hoang, a billionaire businessman, donated $5 million to the fund set up by the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. The fund will distribute money to nonprofits providing emergency financial assistance and other support to those displaced by last month’s flooding.

Mr. Hoang was born in Vietnam and came to the United States at the end of the Vietnam War. He leads Shanghai RAAS Blood Products, which develops and manufactures blood- and plasma-derived medical products. He also owns the Kieu Hoang Winery in Napa Valley.

Arena Stage

Curtis Bell, a real-estate investor, gave $2.5 million for the Washington theater’s Power Plays project to commission and stage 25 new works over 10 years that tell stories of politics and power.

Mr. Bell stipulated that the theater must raise an additional $2.5 million from other donors to receive all of the money.

ProPublica

Craigslist founder Craig Newmark donated $1 million through his foundation to back the nonprofit news organization, which produces investigative journalism in the public interest.

The unrestricted grant will allow ProPublica to add more staff to cover a wide range of issues. Mr. Newmark gave $1 million late last year to the Poynter Institute for a professorship in journalism ethics and in February announced plans to donate another $3.5 million to journalism projects.

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