Gifts Roundup: Rusty and Paula Walter Give $101 Million to Houston Medical Center

A roundup of notable gifts compiled by The Chronicle:

Open Society Foundations

The financier George Soros gave roughly $18 billion to his grant makers. He did not announce any new programs the gift will support, but the foundation’s giving priorities have focused primarily on democracy-building, education, human rights, justice programs, public affairs, and other efforts.

Mr. Soros founded the hedge fund Soros Fund Management. He is a Hungarian immigrant who survived the Nazi occupation of Hungary and escaped the Communist takeover of that county.

Houston Methodist Hospital

Joseph (Rusty) Walter III and his wife, Paula, donated $101 million for neuroscience research and a variety of other programs.

The money will help the medical center create more endowed chairs and faculty, research, and teaching positions.

The money will also expand a neuroscience research project and a translational research program, and will support the Houston Methodist Employee Relief Fund, which aids those who suffered significant losses from Hurricane Harvey.

Mr. Walter is a geologist and the chairman of his family’s Walter Oil & Gas Corporation.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Steve and Debbie Vetter pledged $40 million, half of which will support the Red, White, and Carolina Blue Challenge, a fund-raising effort to support financial aid for children of men and women who have served in the military.

Of the remainder, $10 million will go to Kenan-Flagler Business School; the athletics department will get the other $10 million.

Mr. Vetter is an operating partner at Center Oak Partners, an investment firm. The Vetters both graduated from the university in 1978.

The university also received a big gift from John and Marree Townsend, who pledged $25 million. The Townsends have committed $10 million for the College of Arts & Sciences’ Institute for the Arts and Humanities and other programs, and $10 million for the Kenan-Flagler Business School.

More than one $1 million will support the athletics department, and about $4 million will back other programs. The couple also gave a collection of art works to the university’s Ackland Art Museum.

Mr. Townsend retired in 2015 as a senior adviser with Tiger Management Corporation, an investment company. He earned a bachelor’s degree and an M.B.A. from the university in 1977 and 1982, respectively. Ms. Townsend owns Marree Townsend Interiors. She graduated from the university in 1977.

ProMedica

The Ebeid family donated $28.5 million to the nonprofit health system in Ohio and Michigan for research and programs focusing on how demographic factors such as income levels, educational opportunities, and housing quality affect health.

Russell Ebeid was the president of Guardian Glass Group, a manufacturer of industrial glass products. He died in July.

XPRIZE Foundation

Ric and Jean Edelman gave $25 million to support an XPRIZE competition dedicated to finding new approaches to fighting Alzheimer’s disease.

The XPRIZE is a competition in which teams of experts seek breakthrough solutions to society’s intractable problems.

The Edelmans founded Edelman Financial Services, a financial-planning firm.

Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration

Two gifts have been pledged to establish the David Geffen Fund for research into frontotemporal degeneration, a prevalent cause of dementia: $10 million from the media mogul David Geffen through his foundation and $10 million from the Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation.

Mr. Geffen founded Geffen Records and is a co-founder of DreamWorks SKG.

Cornell University

Howard Milstein and his family donated $20 million to create the Milstein Program in Technology and Humanity, a collaboration between the College of Arts and Sciences and Cornell Tech.

Mr. Milstein leads New York Private Bank & Trust, as well as Milstein Properties, a real-estate developer. He graduated from Cornell in 1973. His son, Michael, graduated from the university in 2011 and is a co-founder of Grand Central Tech, a company that provides shared working space and other resources to small technology businesses in New York.

University of Akron

Jean Hower Taber left the university more than $20 million, about two-thirds of which will support scholarships for honors students and students in audiology.

The rest of the bequest will be used to help maintain Hower House, the Hower family mansion, now a venue for exhibits and programs. Ms. Taber’s family donated the 1870’s-era mansion to the university in 1970.

Ms. Taber, who died earlier this year, was the great-granddaughter of a founder of the Quaker Oats Company.

To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated throughout the week.

Correction: A previous version of this article said David Geffen’s foundation alone pledged $20 million for dementia research. It should have said that $10 million came from his foundation and $10 million from the Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation.