5 Colleges and Universities Get Large Donations; Other Big Gifts

Five higher-education institutions have received big gifts.

• Edward L. Gaylord, publisher of The Daily Oklahoman, has given $22-million to establish a journalism college at the University of Oklahoma, in Norman. The donation will finance the construction of a new facility and endow faculty positions, scholarships, and internships.
• John Moores, a software executive and majority owner of the San Diego Padres baseball team, and his wife Rebecca, have given $20-million to build a cancer center at the University of California at San Diego. The new facility, which is scheduled to open in fall 2003, also received $15-million from Jerome Katzin, a retired investment banker and lawyer, and his wife, Miriam.
• Katherine Herberger has donated $14-million to Arizona State University, in Tempe, to endow the College of Fine Arts. Mrs. Herberger’s late husband, Bob, founded the Herberger’s department-store chain.
• A woman who wants to remain anonymous has donated $10-million to Connecticut College, in New London, to endow professorships in physics and biology, create a fund to buy science equipment, and finance general operations.
• Jerry Rawls, president of the high-technology company Finisar, in Sunnyvale, Calif., has given $10-million to Purdue University, in West Lafayette, Ind., for the campaign for the Krannert School of Management. The school is seeking $55-million to build and equip a new facility and finance scholarships and professorships.

Other recent gifts:

Cornell U. (N.Y.): $8,000,000 from an anonymous donor to establish the Center for Aging Research and Clinical Care at Weill Medical College.

Duke U. (N.C.): $7,000,000 from Alston Gardner of Atlanta, founder of OnTarget Inc., which was acquired last year by the software company Siebel Systems, to endow professorships, fellowships, and scholarships at the Pratt School of Engineering; $3,000,000 from Marc Ewing of Durham, N.C., co-founder of Red Hat, and his wife, Lisa Yun Lee, to endow a professorship and five fellowships in women’s studies; and $2,000,000 from Aileen Todd of Hendersonville, N.C., a retired businesswoman, to support Alzheimer’s research at the Medical Center.

Gonzaga U. (Wash.): $1,000,000 from Bernard Daines of Spokane, Wash., founder of the Internet companies World Wide Packets and Webiness, and his wife, Marsha, to improve technology at the institution.

Interlochen Center for the Arts (Mich.): $1,000,000 from John R. Kane of Las Vegas, president of Applied Technology Consulting, for the capital campaign.

Loyola U. Chicago: $3,000,000 from Michael R. Quinlan of Chicago, chairman of the executive committee of McDonald’s, and his wife, Marilyn, for academic programs.

Muhlenberg College (Pa.): $1,000,000 from William F. Deibert Jr. of Allentown, Pa., former owner of a truck dealership, and his wife, Alma, to endow scholarships for minority students.

National Portrait Gallery (D.C.): $2,000,000 from Paul Peck of McLean, Va., a computer-systems analyst at the U.S. Customs Service, for programs on the American presidency.

Norton Museum of Art (Fla.): $1,000,000 from William and Sally Ross Soter of Palm Beach, Fla., to endow the photography collection.

Pacific U. (Ore.): $3,000,000 from James and Mary Berglund of La Jolla, Calif., an optometrist and co-founder of Enterprise Partners, and an economist, respectively, to establish the Center for Internet Studies.

Penn State U. (Pa.): $1,500,000 from the family of G. Thomas Miller of Harrisburg, Pa., a lawyer, to establish a professorship at the Dickinson School of Law.

Rutgers U. (N.J.): $1,000,000 from Sylvia Baker of Hoboken, N.J., widow of Nathan Baker, a lawyer, and their sons Gerald and Robert, for a courtroom facility at the Center for Law and Justice, in Newark.

San Francisco State U. : $2,400,000 from Robert B. Pasker and Laurie Pitman of San Francisco, founders of Weblogic, to establish a professorship in history, and to endow the history department.

U. of California at Los Angeles: $1,500,000 from Kelly and Lou Gonda of Los Angeles, movie producers, for programs at the Corrine A. Seeds University Elementary School.

U. of Illinois at Chicago: $1,000,000 from Robert Atkins of Champaign, Ill., a retired surgeon, to create and maintain a medicinal-plant garden for the College of Pharmacy on the grounds of the Medical Center.

U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: $1,000,000 from a couple wishing to remain anonymous to endow a professorship in biology.

U. of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas: $2,000,000 from Charles Nearburg of Dallas, founder of the oil company Nearburg Producing, and his wife, Dana, a painter and architect, for pediatric-oncology research; and $1,350,000 from S.T. Harris, a retired executive of Texas Instruments, and his family, for professorships.

U. of Toledo (Ohio): $1,000,000 from Edward P. Kinsey of Mountain View, Calif., executive vice president of finance and administration and chief financial officer of the Internet company Ariba, to endow scholarships at the School of Business Administration.

U. of Oklahoma: $6,000,000 from Curtis W. Mewbourne of Tyler, Tex., president of Mewbourne Oil Company, to endow the School of Petroleum and Geological Engineering.

Upper Valley Community Foundation (N.H.): $9,500,000 bequest from the estate of Marguerite M. Wellborn of Hanover, N.H., a gardener and a poet whose late husband, Abner, worked for General Electric, to endow ecological programs. The foundation is a regional division of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation and the Vermont Community Foundation.

Vassar College (N.Y.): $1,000,000 from Carolyn Grant Fay of Houston, a dance-movement therapist, to endow the study of mind-body relationships through the arts and other programs.

Wayne State U. (Mich.): $5,000,000 from Eugene Applebaum of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., founder of the Arbor Drugs chain, to help construct a facility at the College of Pharmacy Allied Health Professions.

Whitworth College (Wash.): $1,500,000 from an anonymous donor to build a new academic facility.