Big Donations Shine on Arizona Fund, U. of Florida; Other Gifts

Donors have made big gifts to a community foundation and a university.

* A family wishing to remain anonymous has given $25-million to the Arizona Community Foundation, in Phoenix.

The money will be used to set up a “support foundation” that will operate under the umbrella of the community foundation. The new fund will obtain the benefits of the community foundation’s tax-exempt status and administrative services, but it will make grants independently and have its own board of directors.

Family members will serve on that board, a foundation spokeswoman said. The family has yet to make any restrictions on the fund’s giving, and no name has been chosen yet for the fund, she said.

* The University of Florida has received $10-million from Fredric G. Levin, chairman of a law firm in Pensacola, Fla., to endow the College of Law.

The gift increases the college’s endowment to $50-million. The university plans to name the college after Mr. Levin.

The trial lawyer recently served on the team that won $13.2-billion from tobacco companies in Florida’s litigation over smoking-related health-care costs.

Other recent gifts:

Bates College (Me.): $1,000,000 from Henry (Jack) Keigwin of Warwick, R.I., president of F. H. French Company, a landscaping business, and his wife, Beverly, for an environmental-restoration project and to construct an amphitheater.

Brookhaven College (Tex.): $3,500,000 from Ellison Miles of Dallas, president of Miles Production Company, an oil and gas company, to construct the Geotechnology Institute.

Catawba College (N.C.): $2,000,000 from Jim Hurley of Salisbury, N.C., former owner and publisher of the Salisbury Post, and his wife, Gerry, for capital improvements and a fund for the School of Humanities, and $1,000,000 from Ralph Ketner of Salisbury, chairman emeritus of Food Lion, and his wife, Anne, for scholarships in business and accounting and for the capital campaign.

Cleveland State U.: $2,000,000 from Monte Ahuja of Cleveland, founder of Transtar Industries, which makes automotive parts, for the College of Business Administration.

Dodge Nature Center (Minn.): $2,800,000 bequest from the estates of Reuel Harmon of St. Paul, former president of Webb Publishing, and his wife, Margaret, for unrestricted use.

Educational Resource and Services Center (Cal.): $4,000,000 from Jerry Kayne of Los Angeles, and his family, who own Big Dogs, a clothing retailer, to construct a campus for students with special needs.

Elon College (N.C.): $1,000,000 from Furman Moseley of Seattle, chairman of Simpson Paper Company and president of Simpson Investment Company, and his wife, Susan, for the football stadium and athletic facilities.

George Washington U. (D.C.): $1,000,000 bequest from the estate of Shirley H. Richards of Catonsville, Md., who worked at the university’s admissions office, for scholarships for graduate students in anthropology, geography, history, political science, and sociology.

Girard College (Pa.): $1,100,000 from James J. O’Neill of Dallas, president of Sky Chefs, an airline catering business, and his wife, Elizabeth, for endowment. Girard College is a preparatory school for students in first through 12th grade.

The Goodman Theatre (Ill.): $1,000,000 from Hope Abelson of Chicago, a theater producer, to endow artistic programs.

Harvard U. (Mass.): $6,000,000 from Carl S. Shapiro of Palm Beach, Fla., founder and former chairman of Kay Windsor Clothiers, and his wife, Ruth, for the Harvard Medical School Beth Israel Deaconess Mount Auburn Institute for Education and Research.

Indiana State U.: $2,000,000 bequest from the estate of Mary Jo Stanley of Terre Haute, Ind., a secretary whose late husband, Donald, was assistant director of product standards at Campbell Soup Company, to endow scholarships.

Jackson State U. (Miss.): $2,000,000 from Frederick B. Clark of Greenwood, Miss., a lawyer, and his wife, Margaret, a contracting agent for government-financed projects, for scholarships and unrestricted use.

The Johns Hopkins U. (Md.): $2,000,000 from William Polk Carey of New York, chairman of the investment bank W. P. Carey & Company, to endow an entrepreneurship program for undergraduate engineering students.

Minnesota Landscape Arboretum: $2,800,000 bequest from the estates of Reuel Harmon of St. Paul, former president of Webb Publishing, and his wife, Margaret, for unrestricted use. The arboretum is managed by the U. of Minnesota.

Minnesota Parks and Trails Council: $2,800,000 bequest from the estates of Reuel Harmon of St. Paul, former president of Webb Publishing, and his wife, Margaret, for endowment.

Minnesota Science Museum: $2,800,000 bequest from the estates of Reuel Harmon of St. Paul, former president of Webb Publishing, and his wife, Margaret, to endow the museum’s St. Croix Watershed Research Station.

Mississippi State U.: Insurance policy valued at $1,000,000 from Bobby S. Shackouls of Houston, chairman of Burlington Resources, an oil and gas company, for the College of Engineering.

Mizell Senior Center (Cal.): $2,000,000 from Philo Van Wagoner of Palm Springs, Cal., a retired owner of apartment buildings, to endow programs to combat the abuse and neglect of elderly people.

Natural Resources Defense Council (N.Y.): $1,468,000 bequest from the estate of Lewis Anthony Dexter of Boston, an author and a professor of political science who lectured at several universities, for conservation efforts and for programs to reduce the threat of climate change.

Ohio State U.: $3,000,000 from the family of the late Barbara J. Bonner of Worthington, Ohio, a volunteer, to endow a professorship and fund for lung-cancer genetics research, and $1,000,000 from William H. Price II of Cody, Wyo., and his wife, Joanne, to endow scholarships.

Reviving Baseball in Innercities (Cal.): $1,000,000 from Kevin Brown, a pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers, to establish the RBI Academy of Excellence, which will provide baseball and academic programs for inner-city youths.

South Coast Repertory (Cal.): $1,268,000 from Henry T. Nicholas III of Laguna Hills, Cal., president of the Broadcom Corporation, and his wife, Stacey, an engineer, to expand the theater.

Texas Tech U.: $1,000,000 from Dennis Wall of Lubbock, Tex., regional manager at Aetna Life Brokerage, and his wife, Cindy, to endow a professorship in instructional technology at the College of Education.

U. of California at Los Angeles: $1,500,000 from Steve C. K. Liu of Los Angeles, a cardiologist, and his wife, Milly, a clinical professor of pediatrics, for research at the Harbor-UCLA Research and Education Institute, a medical facility in Torrance, Cal.

U. of Dayton (Ohio): $1,000,000 from L. William Crotty of Dayton, chairman of Van Dyne Crotty, a uniform rental and sales company, and his family, for the Center for Enterprise Leadership.

U. of Massachusetts at Amherst: $1,000,000 from Charles F. Perrell of Los Altos, Cal., president of Environmental Software, to endow the department of civil and environmental engineering.

U. of Oklahoma: $1,000,000 from Walter H. Helmerich III of Tulsa, Okla., chairman of the oil company Helmerich and Payne, and his wife, Peggy, an actress, to endow library acquisitions.

West Virginia U: $2,000,000 bequest from the estate of Kaden Tierney of Palm Beach Shores, Fla., a surgeon, for scholarships for students from West Virginia’s Greenbriar, Harrison, or Lewis Counties who are majoring in engineering, journalism, or medicine.

Wofford College (S.C.): $1,000,000 from an anonymous donor to construct science facilities.