$100-Million Donated to U. of Miami’s School of Medicine; Other Big Gifts

Several organizations have received large gifts:

• The University of Miami School of Medicine has received $100-million from the family of Leonard Miller. The money will be used to create four professorships and to hire additional faculty members, as well as to finance other needs at the medical school. Mr. Miller, who died in 2002, founded a home-building company in Miami that eventually became the Lennar Corporation.
• Creighton University, in Omaha, has received a $50-million pledge from an anonymous graduate for a new student-services center, to expand other campus facilities, finance research, and cover other needs.
• Harvard University, in Cambridge, Mass., received $30-million from Albert J. Weatherhead III and his wife, Celia, to create an endowment for science and technology. Mr. Weatherhead, a 1950 graduate of Harvard, is chairman of Weatherhead Industries, in Cleveland, a manufacturer of industrial products.
• Dolores Freeman Cerro, who died last year, has left a total of $21-million to nonprofit organizations in and around Bakersfield, Calif., where she lived. The recipients include California State University at Bakersfield and St. Francis Church. Ms. Cerro and her husband, Victor, earned their money through banking and farming.
• Temple University, in Philadelphia, received $20-million from James E. Beasley for its law school. Mr. Beasley, who was a lawyer in Philadelphia, made the gift in 1998, but the amount was not announced until after his death last year.

Other recent gifts:

California Institute of Technology (Pasadena): $1-million from Carl and Shirley Larson for a program that provides fellowships for summer undergraduate research. Mr. Larson, a 1952 alumnus, is a retired vice president of Versatec, in Santa Clara, Calif.

Dickinson College (Carlisle, Pa.): Bequest in excess of $5-million from Ruth A. Trout to endow the purchase, exhibition, and preservation of art works at the college’s Trout Gallery, established in 1983 with support from Ms. Trout and her sister. Ms. Trout, a 1936 graduate of Dickinson, was a teacher and librarian for the Harrisburg School District, in Pennsylvania. She died last year.

Duke U. (Durham, N.C.): $1-million from Bob Barker, the game-show host, to endow a fund at its law school for the study of animal-rights law. Mr. Barker lives in Hollywood Hills, Calif.

Harvard U. (Cambridge, Mass.): $1-million from MeiLi and Robert A. Hefner III to establish a fund that will support the China Public Policy Program at the Kennedy School of Government. Mr. Hefner founded the GHK Company, a natural-gas exploration and production firm in Oklahoma City.

Hastings College Foundation (Neb.): $1.5-million bequest from Waldean and Matilda McIntire to endow a scholarship fund for biology majors and a chair in biology. Waldean McIntire, who died in 1996, was an ophthalmologist in Omaha, and Matilda McIntire, who died in 2003, was a pediatrician who founded a poison-control center at Omaha’s Children’s Hospital.

The Johns Hopkins U. (Baltimore): $1.5-million from Alfred DeSanctis to endow scholarships for students in the School of Medicine with undergraduate degrees in the humanities. Dr. DeSanctis, a 1951 graduate of the medical school, is a retired surgeon who lives in Ohio. The university also received $1.5-million from James Gipson to support gene-therapy research at the Wilmer Eye Institute. Mr. Gipson, of Beverly Hills, Calif., is president of Pacific Financial Research.

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (Washington): $10-million from Stephen A. Schwarzman to expand its theater programs and capital projects. Mr. Schwarzman is president and co-founder of the Blackstone Group, a global investment and advisory company in New York, and is chairman of the Kennedy Center’s Board of Trustees.

Montreat College (N.C.): $1.5-million bequest from J. Alfred Miller and Berenice M. Miller to establish a scholarship fund for students from Buncombe County and other adjacent counties in North Carolina. Mr. Miller owned the Miller Printing Company, in Asheville.

Nature Conservancy, Illinois Chapter (Chicago): $2.3-million from an anonymous donor to expand the Nachusa Grasslands Preserve, a tract of prairie land approximately 100 miles west of Chicago.

Oklahoma City U.: $1-million from Wanda L. Bass to endow two professorships at the music school. Ms. Bass owns and operates the First National Bank, in McAlester, Okla.

South Dakota State U. Foundation (Brookings): $2.7-million bequest from Mildred White of Wilmette, Ill., for athletic programs, and real estate valued at $1.1-million as part of a planned gift from Mansour Karim, of Pierre, S.D. Mr. Karim is a real-estate investor and the retired chief of hydraulics for the South Dakota Department of Transportation.

U. of Central Florida (Orlando): $2.5-million from Ken Dixon, a certified public accountant and real-estate developer, to help establish a school of accounting.

U. of Florida Foundation (Gainesville): $1-million from John W. Holloway, a businessman from Orlando, Fla., to endow an AIDS-research position in the university’s pathology department.

U. of North Carolina at Asheville: $1.5-million bequest from J. Alfred Miller and Berenice M. Miller to establish a scholarship fund for students from Buncombe County and other adjacent counties in North Carolina. Mr. Miller owned the Miller Printing Company, in Asheville.

U. of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia): $5-million from Howard Gittis to augment the law school’s endowment. Mr. Gittis, a 1958 graduate of the law school, is vice chairman and chief administrative officer of MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings, in New York.

White Plains Hospital Center (N.Y.): $10-million pledge from Sidney E. Frank for its capital campaign to expand facilities and upgrade services. Mr. Frank is chairman of Sidney Frank Importing Company, in New York.

Wildlife Trust (Palisades, N.Y.): $1-million unrestricted gift from Virginia Cretella Mars, of McLean, Va..