$10.2-Million Committed by Ford Heir; Other Gifts

Two organizations recently received large gifts and pledges:

• The Temple of the Vedic Planetarium, in Mayapur, India, has received a $10.2-million pledge from Alfred Brush Ford, a great-grandson of Henry Ford and co-founder of RapportNet, in Dearborn, Mich. The money will be used to construct this temple at the headquarters of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, widely known as the Hare Krishnas.
• The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, in New York, has received an $8-million unrestricted gift from Peter B. Lewis, chairman of the Progressive Corporation, an insurance company in Mayfield Village, Ohio. The organization plans to put $6-million into its endowment, and the rest to support an advertising and grass-roots campaign to educate the public on government policies to fight terrorism that threaten civil liberties.

Other recent gifts:

Armory Art Center (West Palm Beach, Fla.): $1-million from Mary Montgomery and her husband, Robert, a lawyer, for capital improvements.

Boston U., Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future: $5-million pledge over five years from Frederick S. Pardee, an alumnus and real-estate entrepreneur in Brentwood, Calif., to endow a publications program to stimulate research on global change.

Brookings Institution (Washington): $2-million from Richard C. Blum, chairman of Blum Capital Partners, in San Francisco, for a research project on the reduction of global poverty, with a focus on U.S. foreign aid.

Champlain College (Burlington, Vt.): $3-million from an anonymous donor, in the form of a $1-million contribution and a $2-million challenge gift, for capital improvements, scholarships, student programs, and technology.

Elon U. (Elon, N.C.): $1.4-million bequest from Isabella Walton Cannon, an alumna, for student programs.

James Madison U. (Harrisonburg, Va.): $2.5-million from Charles E. Estes, a former owner of Great Coastal Express, in Chester, Va., to construct a performing-arts center.

Johns Hopkins U. (Baltimore): $2.3-million from Thomas C. Quirt and Jack W. Shay, partners at the firm R.P.M. (Baltimore), to create a medical-research fund in urology, to support research on Alzheimer’s disease, and to support the division of cardiology at Johns Hopkins Medicine; and $1-million from R. Kendall Nottingham, an executive vice president at the American International Group, in New York, for the School of Advanced International Studies, in Washington.

Southern Methodist U.-Taos (N.M.): $1-million from William P. Clements Jr., a former governor of Texas, for capital and technological improvements.

St. Anselm College (Manchester, N.H.): $2-million from Betty Boutselis, in memory of her late husband, John, an alumnus and surgeon from Columbus, Ohio, to endow a scholarship fund.

St. Paul U. Hospital (Dallas): $1-million from Isabell and Joe Haggar Jr., former chairman of the Haggar Clothing Company, in Dallas, to enable the hospital to use a new magnetic-resonance imaging machine for research, diagnosis, and monitoring patients, including those who have had heart transplants.

U. of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia): $3.5-million from Robert L. McNeil Jr., former chairman of McNeil Laboratories, in Philadelphia, to construct a permanent home for the Center for Early American Studies in the School of Arts and Sciences, and to endow the new building.

Williams College (Williamstown, Mass.): $5-million from Edgar M. Bronfman, an alumnus and former chairman of the Seagram Company, in Montreal, to extend “need blind” admission to international applicants.

Youngstown State U. (Ohio): $3.29-million from a trust set up by the late John S. Andrews, who was manager of Associated Financial Services Corporation, in Youngstown, and his wife, Doris, for capital improvements and to endow a chair in accounting.