Detroit Art Museum Gets $45-Million From Three Donors; Other Recent Gifts

Eight institutions have received big gifts:

• The Detroit Institute of Arts has received a total of $45-million from three donors — Josephine F. Ford, Richard A. Manoogian, and A. Alfred Taubman — for its capital campaign, which will support renovation and expansion, endowment, and operations. Ms. Ford, who died earlier this year, was the granddaughter of Henry Ford, the automaker. Mr. Manoogian, chairman emeritus of the museum’s Board of Directors, is the chief executive officer of the Masco Corporation, in Taylor, Mich., which manufactures home-improvement and building products. Mr. Taubman, originally from Pontiac, Mich., is the owner and developer of several regional shopping malls.
• Bruce Kovner, chairman of Caxton Associates, a hedge fund in New York, has pledged $25-million to the Juilliard School, in New York. The gift, which was made toward the school’s capital campaign, will support scholarships, faculty salaries, and facilities improvements. Mr. Kovner serves as chairman of Juilliard’s Board of Trustees.
• The San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has received a $13-million bequest from Leanne B. Roberts for a facility to provide improved veterinary care. Ms. Roberts, who died in 2003, served as a member of the organization’s board for 15 years. Her husband, George Roberts, is one of the founding partners of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company, a private-equity firm in New York.
• The Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minn., has received a $12-million pledge from Eugene and Marcia Applebaum. Mr. Applebaum, who has been treated at the clinic for multiple sclerosis, is the founder of Arbor Drugs, which he sold to CVS Pharmacy in 1998. The gift will support two professorships, as well as clinical trials for treatments for Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, and other diseases and health problems.
• Chapman University, in Orange, Calif., has received a $10-million pledge from Roger C. Hobbs for its new Institute for Real Estate, Law, and Environmental Studies. Mr. Hobbs is a university trustee and president of the R.C. Hobbs Company, a land- and commercial-development company, in Orange.
• Edward P. Fitts has pledged $10-million to North Carolina State University, in Raleigh, to endow its Department of Industrial Engineering. Mr. Fitts, a member of the class of 1961, is chief executive officer of Dopaco, a food-service company in Exton, Pa.
• The Old Globe Theatre, in San Diego, has received $10-million from Conrad Prebys for facilities. Mr. Prebys is the owner of Progress Construction Company, in San Diego.
• Teach For America, in New York, has received a $10-million pledge from Doris and Don Fisher to help the organization more than double the number of recent college graduates it trains over the next five years to teach in rural and urban public schools. The Fishers are co-founders of Gap Inc., in San Francisco, and Mr. Fisher is a member of Teach For America’s board.

Other recent gifts:

California Lutheran U. (Thousand Oaks): $5-million pledge from Jack and Carol Gilbert for a sports and fitness center. Mr. Gilbert, a former member of the university’s Board of Regents, founded the Thousand Oaks Land and Development Corporation.

Chapman U. (Orange, Calif.): $3-million from Helen Hoag to establish the Hoag Center for Real Estate and Finance. The gift honors Ms. Hoag’s late husband, C. Larry Hoag, a businessman from Downey, Calif.

City U. of New York: $4-million from Marian Heiskell, Ruth Holmberg, and Judith Sulzberger for scholarships for students attending its new graduate school of journalism. The donors are sisters of Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, the retired publisher of The New York Times, and are making the gift in his honor.

Columbia U. (New York): $4-million from Marian Heiskell, Ruth Holmberg, and Judith Sulzberger to establish a program that will provide advanced management training to executives of news organizations.

Community Foundation of Calhoun County (Anniston, Ala.): $1-million bequest from Andrew J. and Bette Saks for college scholarships for students who graduate from Saks High School, in Anniston. In 1910, Mr. Saks’s parents, Joseph and Amelia Saks, donated the land on which the school was built. Mr. Saks, an engineer and owner of Model City Land Company, died in 2003; his wife died this year.

Holy Innocents’ Episcopal (Atlanta): $2-million from the family of Fred Rowan for its capital campaign. Mr. Rowan is chairman and chief executive officer of Carter’s, a children’s-apparel company based in Atlanta. His daughter Jessica graduated from the school.

Jay Heritage Center (Rye, N.Y.): $3-million from the Aresty family to restore the Peter Augustus Jay House, which was built by a son of John Jay, the first chief justice of the Supreme Court. Kitty Aresty is one of the founders of the Jay Heritage Center, and serves on its Board of Trustees.

Juilliard School (New York): $5-million from Rosemary Willson, widow of the composer Meredith Willson, a Juilliard alumnus, for its capital campaign. The school also received $2-million for the campaign from Enid and Lester S. Morse Jr., president of the Lester Morse Company, a real-estate and mortgage-brokerage firm.

Michigan Technological U. (Houghton): $2-million from Frank Pavlis, a 1938 graduate, for a leadership program that includes seminars, an expanded curriculum, and international opportunities for selected students. Mr. Pavlis is a retired vice president for international and world trade at Air Products and Chemicals, in Lehigh Valley, Pa.

Oklahoma State U. at Tulsa: $4-million from Walter and Peggy Helmerich for a new research and technology-development center. Mr. Helmerich is chairman of the board of Helmerich & Payne, an oil- and gas-exploration company in Tulsa.

Project Self-Sufficiency of Sussex County (Newton, N.J.): $1.6-million from Beverly B. and William Bruce Gordon to purchase and renovate a facility that will serve as the organization’s new headquarters. Ms. Gordon is president of the Board of Directors of the nonprofit group, which assists low-income families, and Mr. Gordon owns a tractor dealership.

Salem State College (Mass.): $2-million from Sophia and Bernard Gordon for a new creative- and performing-arts center. Mr. Gordon is the founder and former chairman of the Analogic Corporation, a technology company in Peabody, Mass.

Swarthmore College (Pa.): $1-million from Bruce Jay Gould, a member of the class of 1954, to endow the college’s new program in Islamic studies. Mr. Gould is a retired cardiologist who lives in Philadelphia.

U. of Illinois (Urbana): $1-million from James R. Beck for scholarships and fellowships in the chemistry and microbiology departments on the Urbana-Champaign campus. Mr. Beck worked as a researcher with Eli Lilly & Co., in Indianapolis. The university’s College of Law has received $1-million from Jon David and Elizabeth A. Epstein to create a professorship and provide research and program support in health-care law and policy. Mr. Epstein is a partner in Vinson and Elkins, in Houston. John H. Bruning, president of Corning Tropel Corporation, in Fairport, N.Y., gave $1-million to endow a professorship in electromagnetic theory and optics in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering on the Urbana-Champaign campus.

U. of Michigan at Ann Arbor: $3-million from Stanford Lipsey to restore and improve the building that houses student publications. Mr. Lipsey has worked as the publisher of several papers owned by Warren Buffett, and now serves as a vice president of Berkshire Hathaway, in Omaha.

U. of South Dakota (Vermillion): $8.7-million bequest from Margaret and Matthew Faithe to endow scholarships for students pursuing careers in health care. Matthew Faithe, who died in 1990, held three doctorates and started the Museum of Visual Materials, in Kenyon, Minn. Margaret Faithe, who died this year, was a professor of family medicine at the university.

Wake Forest U. (Winston-Salem, N.C.): $5-million from Doug and Elizabeth Manchester to support faculty members and the university’s golf program. Mr. Manchester is the founder and chairman of Manchester Financial Group, in San Diego.

Wichita State U. Foundation (Kan.): $8.5-million from W. Frank Barton to endow three professorships and provide other support, as part of the university’s capital campaign. Mr. Barton is co-founder of Rent-a-Center, in Plano, Tex.