Two Wisconsin Science Centers Receive $50-Million; Other Recent Gifts

Compiled by Maria Di Mento

Four institutions have received big gifts:

• John P. Morgridge, chairman of Cisco Systems, in San Jose, Calif., and his wife, Tashia, have given $50-million to the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery to build a facility that will house two new science centers near the University of Wisconsin at Madison. One of the centers, which will be used by the university, will be supported by government grants, while the other, to be named the Morgridge Institute for Research, will rely on private support to avoid the restrictions that accompany government research projects. The couple’s donation will be matched by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, plus an additional $50-million from the state. The Morgridges are 1955 graduates of the university.

• Jim and Natalie Haslam have pledged $22-million to the University of Tennessee, in Knoxville, for the School of Music in the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Business Administration, and the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy. A portion of the money will also go toward the athletic department and an endowment for university programs. Mr. Haslam, who serves on the university’s Board of Trustees, is chairman of Pilot Travel Centers and chairman and president of the Pilot Corporation, a Knoxville company that operates nationwide filling stations and convenience stores. The Haslams, who are 1952 graduates of the university, also contributed $10,550,000 from their family foundation.

• The Denver Art Museum has received a pledge of $15-million from Kent Logan, a retired investment banker in Vail, Colo., and his wife, Vicki, to endow the museum’s department of modern and contemporary art. The couple said the institution would receive the money, as well as property and artworks, after the Logans die; they earmarked $5-million of the bequest to create an endowment that will pay for the upkeep of the art they donate.

• Colgate University, in Hamilton, N.Y., has received $10-million from an anonymous alumnus. Most of the money, $8.5-million, will establish an endowment to pay for the maintenance and operation of the Case Library, the Ho Science Center, and other campus facilities. The remaining $1.5-million will go toward campus projects.

Other recent gifts:

Adelphi U. (Garden City, N.Y.): $8.5-million from Carol A. Ammon, founder and chairman of Endo Pharmaceuticals, in Chadds Ford, Pa., to establish a professorship in childhood education in the School of Education, endow scholarships for undergraduate and graduate education students, and pay for campus improvements. Ms. Ammon received an M.B.A. at Adelphi in 1979.

American Cancer Society (Atlanta): $1.4-million bequest from Marjorie Carter McCarthy, of Alleghany County, Va., a former high-school teacher and organist, for unrestricted use.

American Diabetes Association (Alexandria, Va.): $1.4-million bequest from Marjorie Carter McCarthy, of Alleghany County, Va., a former high-school teacher and organist, for unrestricted use.

American Foundation for the Blind (New York): $4.9-million bequest from Gertrude Hotchkiss Heyn for endowment. Ms. Heyn, whose father invented the Hotchkiss stapler, lived in Connecticut and died in 1965.

American Heart Association (Dallas): $1.4-million bequest from Marjorie Carter McCarthy, of Alleghany County, Va., a former high-school teacher and organist, for unrestricted use.

Auburn U., College of Agriculture (Ala.): $6-million from Wayne McElrath, retired vice president of a poultry- and egg-processing company in Hartford, Conn., to endow a scholarship fund that Mr. McElrath and his late wife, Nadine, created in 1998.

California State U. at Fullerton: $4.2-million pledge from Dan Black, president of ProThera, a Reno, Nev., company that manufactures vitamins and other nutritional supplements, for scholarships for students in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. The money will also be used to buy new equipment and refurbish laboratories in the Science Laboratory Center.

Dabney S. Lancaster Community College Educational Foundation (Clifton Forge, Va.): $1.4-million bequest from Marjorie Carter McCarthy, of Alleghany County, Va., a former high-school teacher and organist, for educational programs and scholarships.

Lasell College (Newton, Mass.): $5-million bequest from Evelyn V. (Suor) Butterworth, a former real-estate agent in Reading, Pa., for facility improvements. Ms. Butterworth, a 1927 graduate of the college, died in January.

Lawrenceville School (N.J.): $4-million from Tom Carter, president of Black Stone Minerals Company, in Houston, and his wife, Jeanie, for new student housing. Mr. Carter graduated from Lawrenceville, a private high school, in 1970, and is vice president of its Board of Trustees.

Shenandoah U. (Winchester, Va.): $3-million from the Gerald Halpin family for a new building for the Harry F. Byrd Jr. School of Business. Mr. Halpin is the president and chief executive officer of the West Group, a real-estate development and construction company, in McLean, Va.

U. of Chicago: $5-million from Bernard J. DelGiorno, first vice president of investments at UBS Financial Services, in Chicago, to establish a creative and performing-arts center, build a new dormitory, and renovate Stagg Field, the university’s main athletic field. Mr. DelGiorno graduated from the university in 1954 and earned an M.B.A. there in 1955.

U. of Mary Washington (Fredericksburg, Va.): $5-million from Arabelle Laws Arrington, of Warren, Va., to endow the Summer Science Institute and other programs for faculty members and students. Ms. Arrington graduated from the university in 1941. The university also received $1-million from Sara Page Cosby Mayo, and her husband, Richard, a co-founder of Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo & Company, an investment management firm in Boston. The money will endow a professorship in biological sciences. Ms. Mayo is a 1964 graduate of the university, and Mr. Mayo serves on the board of the university’s foundation.

U. of Pittsburgh Medical Center: $5-million from Frank and Athena Sarris, founders of Sarris Candies, in Canonsburg, Pa., to endow research at the Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute. Mr. Sarris received a kidney transplant at the medical center in 2002.

Washington and Lee U. (Lexington, Va.): $1.4-million bequest from Marjorie Carter McCarthy, of Alleghany County, Va., a former high school teacher and organist, for building improvements and scholarships. Her late husband, Lawrence L. McCarthy, was a 1929 graduate of the university.