George Lucas Adds $25-Million to Chicago Education Giving

Star Wars filmmaker George Lucas and his wife, investment executive Mellody Hobson, have pledged $25-million to the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools for construction of an arts building, reports the Chicago Tribune.

The gift from the George Lucas Family Foundation is to be formally announced Tuesday. At the donors’ request, the arts hall, slated to open in 2015, will be named for late filmmaker and photographer Gordon Parks, making it the first University of Chicago structure named for an African American.

Ms. Hobson is the president of Chicago-based Ariel Investments, whose founder, John Rogers Jr., chairs the board of the Laboratory Schools, a university-affiliated private institution with nearly 1,800 students from nursery school to 12th grade. She and Mr. Lucas, who married last year, donated $25-million in December to Chicago youth program After School Matters.