Arts Institute in Detroit Gets $50-Million; Other Gifts

Two arts institutions and two universities have received big donations.

* Three donors have pooled gifts totaling $50-million to benefit the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Josephine Ford, granddaughter of the automobile pioneer Henry Ford; Richard A. Manoogian, chairman of the plumbing and household-supply corporation Masco; and A. Alfred Taubman, chairman of an eponymous real-estate company, provided the initial funds for a campaign that officials hope will raise $320-million over the next 10 years.

The institute would not divulge how much each donor gave. One phase of the drive, for capital improvements and operations, seeks $120-million by 2004. The second phase, running concurrently with the first, aims for $200-million for endowment by 2009.

* A project to renovate an auditorium in Austin, Tex., has received $20-million from long-time residents Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long.

The gift to Arts Center Stage is intended to help transform the Palmer Auditorium into a multiple-venue arts facility scheduled to open in 2003. Mr. Long is a lawyer and chairman of Norwest Bank, Texas. He and his wife have lived in Austin for 50 years.

* George L. Bunting, Jr., heir to the Noxzema skin-cream fortune, and his family, have given $10-million to the Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore.

The Buntings’ gift will help construct a cancer-research building at the Oncology Center that is scheduled to open January 2000. Mr. Bunting’s grandfather, George, invented Noxzema and founded Noxell Corporation. Control of the company fell to Mr. Bunting’s father, George, and then to Mr. Bunting before its acquisition in 1990 by Procter & Gamble.

* California State Polytechnic Institute at Pomona has received $10-million from James Collins, chairman of the restaurant chain Sizzler International, and his wife, Carol.

The couple made the gift to build new classrooms and laboratories at the School of Hotel and Restaurant Management, and to endow the school.

Other recent gifts:

Allendale Columbia School (N.Y.): $1,646,500 bequest from the estate of Mary Whipple Clark of Rochester, N.Y., daughter-in-law of George Clark, an initial investor in Eastman Kodak, and widow of Donald Clark, a financier, for unrestricted use. This pre-kindergarten through 12th-grade preparatory school will use the gift for endowment.

American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts (Cal.): $1,000,000 from Garen Staglin of Rutherford, Cal., owner of the Staglin Family Vineyard, and his wife, Shari, for the capital campaign.

American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science (N.Y.): $2,000,000 bequest from the estates of Emanuel Freund of Haverstraw, N.Y., a physician and former president of Nyack Hospital, and his wife, Frances, for research on gene-transfer and gene-targeting technologies.

Dallas Baptist U.: $1,000,000 from Orville Rogers of Dallas, a retired airline pilot, and his wife, Esther Beth, to help construct a women’s dormitory.

Davidson County Community College (N.C.): Property valued at $2,000,000 from the estate of Mary Link Briggs of Winston-Salem, N.C., a retired nurse, for nursing scholarships.

Fontbonne College (Mo.): $3,000,000 from an anonymous alumna to endow academic programs.

Georgetown U. (D.C.): $2,000,000 from Arthur Calcagnini of New York and North Palm Beach, Fla., chairman of the commodities firm Lombard International, and his wife, Nancy, former managing director of CS First Boston, an investment-banking company, to endow the “Escape” program — which encourages first-year students to spend a night in self-reflection — and to build new offices for chaplains; and $1,000,000 from Vincent A. Wolfington of Washington, chairman of Carey International, a limousine-rental company, to help construct a residence for the campus’s Jesuits.

Hospice of Baltimore: $1,000,000 from Jeanne Gilchrist Vance of Baltimore and Manalaphan, Fla., whose family owned a lumber company in Oregon, for endowment.

The Johns Hopkins U. (Md.): $1,160,000 bequest from the estate of Esther Dunlap of Bryn Mawr, Pa., to endow research in pediatric endocrinology at the Children’s Center; $1,000,000 from Donald W. Spiro of Kinnelon, N.J., vice-chairman of Oppenheimer Multi-Sector Income Trust, and his wife, Evelyn, for research at the School of Medicine; and $1,000,000 from an anonymous donor for unrestricted support of the Center for Talented Youth at the Institute for the Academic Advancement of Youth.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology: $5,000,000 from William Hewlett of Palo Alto, Cal., co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, to endow a president’s discretionary fund to support leadership programs.

Medical Foundation of North Carolina: Property valued at $2,000,000 from the estate of Mary Link Briggs of Winston-Salem, N.C., a retired nurse, for arthritis research.

Mount Holyoke College (Mass.): $4,000,000 from Paul Weissman of White Plains, N.Y., an investment banker, and his wife, Harriet, to endow the Speaking, Arguing, and Writing Program and the Center for Leadership and Public Interest Advocacy.

Mount Marty College (S.D.): $5,000,000 from an anonymous donor for endowment.

Rhode Island Foundation: $1,051,060 bequest from the estate of Frederick J. Fish, Jr., of Warwick, R.I., a merchant marine and a real-estate owner, for unrestricted use.

Rochester Area Community Foundation (N.Y.): $3,300,000 bequest from the estate of Mary Whipple Clark of Rochester, N.Y., daughter-in-law of George Clark, an initial investor in Eastman Kodak, and widow of Donald Clark, a financier, for endowment and an early-childhood-development program.

The Sage Colleges (N.Y.): $1,000,000 from Natalie W. Buchman of Longboat Key, Fla., a teacher, artist, and philanthropist, for capital improvements at the colleges’ campuses in Troy and Albany, N.Y.

San Francisco State U.: $2,000,000 from Y. F. Chang of Taipai, Taiwan, chairman of the Evergreen Group, an air and ship transport business, to endow scholarships and a professorship in international business.

U. of California at San Francisco: $6,500,000 bequest from the estate of Gladys Barber of San Francisco, whose late husband, Leland, was a dentist, to establish two professorships at the School of Dentistry.

U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: $1,500,000 from James Avery of Fredericksburg, Tex., founder of James Avery Craftsman, a jewelry-store chain, to endow a professorship at the College of Fine and Applied Arts, and to support the James Ross Shipley awards for students and faculty members in the college.

U. of North Florida: $1,000,000 from David A. Stein of Jacksonville, Fla., chairman of King Provision, which distributes supplies to Burger King franchises, to endow scholarships in business ethics for students from Florida’s Clay, Duval, and St. Johns Counties.

U. of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas: $1,000,000 from Bill Barrett of Dallas, executive vice-president of Willow Distributors, a beer-distribution company, and his wife, Angie, to establish a center for pediatric oncology.

United Way of Greater Rochester (N.Y.): $3,300,000 bequest from the estate of Mary Whipple Clark of Rochester, N.Y., daughter-in-law of George Clark, an initial investor in Eastman Kodak, and widow of Donald Clark, a financier, for endowment.