Duke U. Gets $72-Million From Trustee; Other Gifts

Two institutions have received gifts of $50-million or more:

• Duke University, in Durham, N.C., received $72-million from Peter and Ruth Virginia Nicholas, of Natick, Mass., on December 31, the last day of its capital campaign to raise $2-billion. Most of the gift — $70-million — is earmarked for the School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, while the remaining $2-million will support library renovations. Mr. Nicholas is chair of the university’s Board of Trustees and co-founder and chairman of the Boston Scientific Corporation. Ms. Nicholas is founder and president of Open Market, a furniture store in Concord, Mass. The couple and their three children all graduated from Duke University.
• Charles Simonyi, chief executive officer of Intentional Software Corporation, in Bellevue, Wash, has donated $47-million to establish the Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences, in Bellevue. Mr. Simonyi, who earned a Ph.D. in computer science from Stanford University, was formerly an engineer at the Microsoft Corporation, where he developed software applications.

Other recent gifts:

Carroll College (Waukesha, Wis.): $1.25-million from Deborah Schneider and her husband, James, senior vice president and chief financial officer at Dell (Round Rock, Tex.), to renovate an athletic facility.

Dallas Center for the Performing Arts Foundation: $1.2-million from Diane Brierley and her husband, Hal, chairman of Brierley & Partners (Dallas), a marketing company, to construct a performing-arts center.

Emerson College (Boston): $1.5-million from Lois Foster, an alumna of the college, and her husband, Henry, founder and former president of Charles River Laboratories (Wilmington, Mass.), to endow a professorship in contemporary art.

Miami U. (Oxford, Ohio): $1.5-million gift from Jack R. Anderson, president of Calver Corporation (Dallas) and a 1947 graduate, to create a professorship in finance.

Oakland U. (Rochester, Mich.): $4-million from Carlotta Pawley and her husband, Dennis, a former executive vice president at DaimlerChrysler Corporation (Auburn Hills, Mich.) and a graduate of the university, for the School of Education and Human Services.

Saint Anselm College (Manchester, N.H.): $1.25-million from Cheryl Bready and her husband, Richard, to endow a chair in ethics, economics, and the common good, and for student scholarships. Mr. Bready graduated from the college in 1965 and is chairman and chief executive officer of Nortek (Providence, R.I.).

Seattle Symphony: $5-million from Becky Benaroya and her husband, Jack, former president of the Benaroya Group (Seattle), for its endowment.

State U. of New York at Binghamton: $1-million from Wanda Osterhout and her husband, Ray, a retired group vice president and underwriting and marketing manager for Swiss Reinsur-ance America Corporation (Armonk, N.Y.), to endow a professorship in entrepreneurship in the School of Management.

U. of California-San Diego (La Jolla): $1-million from Susan Engelhorn and her husband, Sheldon, a biochemist and businessman, of Cardiff by the Sea, Calif., to endow student scholarships.

U. of Georgia (Athens): Forest land valued at $6.1-million from Carolyn Bryan, of Savannah, Ga., and her late sister, Dorothy Warnell, for the School of Forest Resources. Their father, Daniel B. Warnell, was president of the Pembroke State Bank (Ga.), owned large tracts of land, and was a state senator and a representative.

U. of Maryland at Baltimore: $1.25-million anonymous gift to the School of Pharmacy to hire faculty members specializing in geriatrics, and to establish a postgraduate program in geriatric pharmacotherapy.

Warner Southern College (Lake Wales, Fla.): $1.1-million unrestricted gift from an anonymous donor.

Whitman College (Walla Walla, Wash.): $1-million bequest from Phyllis Berical Johnson, who lived in Manhattan Beach, Calif., for a scholarship fund.