Gifts Roundup: Houston Couple Gives $70 Million for Park; Calif. Music School Gets $46 Million

A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:

Memorial Park Conservancy

Richard and Nancy Kinder donated $70 million through their family foundation to back the restoration of Memorial Park, a 1,500-acre public park in Houston. The money, to be paid out over 10 years, will also support the long-term care of the park.

Richard Kinder co-founded Kinder Morgan, an energy company headquartered in Houston. The couple have given extensively to a number of parks in the Houston area and donated $50 million to launch the Bayou Greenways 2020 project in 2013. They have appeared on the Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50 list of America’s most generous donors twice in recent years.

San Francisco Conservatory of Music

Ute Bowes gave $46.4 million through the William K. Bowes, Jr. Foundation, which was founded by her late husband. The money will go toward a new performing-arts center and a building to house conservatory students.

Ute Bowes owns Ferry Plaza Seafood, a San Francisco restaurant. William Bowes co-founded U.S. Venture Partners, a Silicon Valley firm that invested in hundreds of information-technology and health-care companies. He was a trustee of the music school for 22 years before his death in 2017.

Success Academy Charter Schools

Daniel and Margaret Loeb donated $15 million through their Margaret and Daniel Loeb-Third Point Foundation to establish the Loeb Fund to Reimagine the American High School, an effort to design new models for how high schools operate.

Daniel Loeb founded the hedge fund Third Point Management and serves as chairman of the Success Academy’s Board of Trustees. He is a great-nephew of Ruth Handler, who created the Barbie doll and co-founded Mattel Inc.

Regis University

Andy Anderson gave $10 million for the business and economics college, which will be renamed the Anderson College of Business.

Anderson is president and CEO of Nor-Son, a construction-services company in Minnesota. He graduated from Regis in 1990.

Purdue University

James and JeanAnne Chaney donated $8 million through their family foundation to the Pacesetter Endowment for Pharmacy, which provides scholarships. The funds will also go toward renovating and expanding the Purdue College of Pharmacy’s building or constructing a new facility.

The couple established the endowment with a $1 million gift in 2014. It has so far provided scholarships to more than 140 students.

James Chaney is president of the Cleveland Syrup Company, which provides sweeteners to food manufacturers. JeanAnne Chaney earned a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from Purdue in 1961.

Framingham State University

Thomas and Halcyon Mancuso Krebs gave $2.4 million to establish scholarships for students in the humanities and social sciences.

The Mancuso English, Humanities, and Social & Behavioral Sciences Scholarships will cover 100 percent of the cost of tuition, fees, room, and board for up to four academic years.

Halcyon Mancuso Krebs is an English professor at the university. Thomas Krebs is a health-care executive.

Millersville University

Patrick Tell donated $2 million to endow the university’s music school, which will be named for him.

Income from the endowment will support music programs and scholarships for students pursuing careers in music, pay for new equipment and instruments, and bring in artists from different musical disciplines to work with students.

Tell is a former president of Tell Manufacturing, a Lancaster County, Pa., company that makes and distributes hardware.

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 Richard and Nancy Kinder had given $50 million for a Memorial Park project in Houston in 2013. The money was for Bayou Greenways 2020.