Billionaire Promises $200-Million to Help Armenia; Other Recent Gifts

The billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian has pledged $200-million to benefit people in Armenia.

Half the money will be used for an interest-free lending program to benefit entrepreneurs in Armenia and to spur economic development there.

The rest will be used primarily for road construction and to rebuild areas harmed by the 1988 earthquake.

Mr. Kerkorian, 81, whose parents were Armenian emigres, has a long history of giving to Armenian causes. Most of the money for this gift will come from his decade-old Lincy Foundation — named after his daughters, Linda and Tracy — which makes, on average, 40 per cent of its grants to Armenian causes.

A Dallas couple has pledged $25-million to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, in Atlanta, to expand educational programs at the organization’s 2,013 clubs nationwide.

Daniel T. Phillips, chairman of the consumer-lending company FirstPlus Financial Group, and his wife, Merlene, made the gift through their newly established family foundation. They directed their gift to provide more tutors, technology, and classrooms for the clubs.

Two broadcasters have set up charitable remainder trusts that will ultimately generate an estimated $20-million in today’s dollars for the Trust for Public Land, in San Francisco.

Jim Gabbert, co-founder of the San Francisco television station KOFY-TV, and his business partner, Mike Lincoln, donated $60-million and $10-million, respectively, from the sale last month of their stock in Pacific FM — KOFY-TV’s parent company — to the Granite Broadcasting Corporation, in New York.

Mr. Gabbert and Mr. Lincoln, who will both receive an income from the trusts, attached no stipulations as to how the remainder should be used by the charity. After their deaths, the organization will use the remaining money to expand its conservation efforts.

Other recent gifts:

Appalachian State U. (N.C.): Charitable remainder trust valued at $1,000,000 from Bruce Flachs of Kiawah Island, S.C., founder of CompSource, a company that administers workers’ compensation, and his wife, Betsy, an insurance counselor, for the Brantley Risk and Insurance Center.

Campbell U. (N.C.): $7,000,000 bequest from the estate of Thomas (Jack) Lynch of Winston-Salem, N.C., an investor and apartment-complex manager, for the School of Business, general scholarships, and a professorship in law.

Christopher Newport U. (Va.):$1,000,000 from Robert Freeman of Newport News, Va., an investor and former managing partner at Coopers and Lybrand, his wife, Dorothy, and their family, to help construct a performing-arts center.

Coker College (S.C.):$1,400,000 bequest from the estate of Hannah Lide Coker of Richmond, Va., a professor of music at the University of Richmond and granddaughter of the college’s founder, James Lide Coker, to establish an endowment for the college, and a separate endowment for its botanical garden.

Greenville Hospital System Foundation (S.C.):$1,000,000 from Alester G. Furman III of Greenville, S.C., retired president of the Furman Company, a real-estate, insurance, and investment company, and his wife, Mary, for unrestricted use.

Indiana State U.: $5,000,000 from Donald Gongaware of Westfield, Ind., retired executive vice-president of the insurance company Conseco, and his wife, Patricia, to establish the Center for Insurance Management Development.

LaGrange College (Ga.): $1,250,000 from Ely R. Callaway, Jr., of Carlsbad, Cal., chairman of Callaway Golf, to endow a professorship in business administration and economics.

LDS Hospital-Deseret Foundation (Utah): $2,000,000 from an anonymous donor to endow clinical medical research and education. Linfield College (Ore.): $1,250,000 from an anonymous donor for scholarships.

McKendree College (Ill.): $3,000,000 from Vernon W. Piper of St. Louis, a philanthropist, to construct an academic center.

New Gate School (Fla.): $1,000,000 from John Cloud of Sarasota, Fla., president of the Cloud Corporation, and his wife, Diana, for the capital campaign. New Gate is a Montessori school for children in pre-kindergarten through the eighth grade.

Palm Beach Atlantic College (Fla.): $1,000,000 from Thomas R. Pledger of Jupiter, Fla., chairman of Dycom Industries, and his wife, Phyllis, to establish a professorship in applied theology at the School of Ministry.

Queens College (N.C.): $5,000,000 from John H. Sykes of Tampa, Fla., president of the computer-consulting company Sykes Enterprises, and his wife, Susan, to construct an addition to the business school.

Radcliffe College (Mass.): $3,000,000 from an anonymous donor for the capital campaign.

Southern Methodist U. (Tex.):$1,500,000 from Roy M. Huffington of Houston, chairman of the petroleum company that bears his name, and his wife, Phyllis, to endow a professorship in finance at the Cox School of Business.

Spalding U. (Ky.): $1,000,000 from an anonymous donor for the student life and development department.

U. of Arizona at Tucson: $2,200,000 from Norman McClelland of Phoenix, chairman of Shamrock Foods, and his sister, Frances, corporate secretary-treasurer at Shamrock Foods, for the College of Business and Public Administration. U. of Minnesota-Twin Cities: $2,500,000 from Robert Buuck of Minneapolis, co-founder of American Medical Systems and of Iotek Inc., and his wife, Gail, to increase the number of courses offered, hire more faculty members, and recruit more students at the Carlson School of Management’s Center for Entrepreneurial Studies.

U. of New Hampshire: $2,300,000 from Leslie S. Hubbard of Walpole, N.H., co-founder of the Hubbard Farms poultry-breeding business, to endow the Climate Change Research Center.

U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill:$3,400,000 bequest from the estate of Thomas (Jack) Lynch of Winston-Salem, N.C., an investor and apartment-complex manager, to endow the preservation of library materials. U. of South Carolina at Columbia: $1,000,000 from Robert Dobson of Greenville, S.C., a retired lawyer, and his wife, Catherine, a retired teacher, to endow a volunteer-service program for students. U. of Southern California: Charitable remainder trust valued at $1,800,000 from Ried Bridges of Los Angeles, a lawyer, for unrestricted use.

U. of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas: $1,000,000 from J. L. Huffines of Dallas, owner of five car dealerships, and his wife, Sydney, to endow a professorship in cancer research.