$15-Million Committed to University; Other Gifts

Five higher-education institutions have received big gifts:

• Richard C. Blum, a real-estate and investment executive, has donated $10-million and pledged an additional $5-million to the University of California at Berkeley to establish a center for the study of developing economies. Mr. Ellis is chairman of the Los Angeles real-estate firm CB Richard Ellis and founder and president of Blum Capital Partners, an investment firm in San Francisco. In making the gift, Mr. Blum, a trustee of the university, said that if the institution raised $5-million from other sources, he would match that sum.

• Western Kentucky University, in Bowling Green, has received a pledge of artwork, cash, and property valued at $15-million from Jerry Baker, a retired president of Airgas Mid America, a welding gas and supplies distributor in Bowling Green. A large portion of the pledge, $11-million, will go to the university upon Mr. Baker’s death, and will endow scholarships and pay for the maintenance of the home and gardens that Mr. Baker, a 1951 alumnus, has promised to the university in his will.

• The Mississippi State University Foundation, in Starkville, has received a $10-million donation from Bobby Shackouls, a retired chairman and president of Burlington Resources, and his wife, Judy, to endow the university’s honors college. The money will also pay for study-abroad scholarships, undergraduate research fellowships, and visiting scholars and guest speakers. Mr. Shackouls, a 1972 graduate of the university, serves on the foundation’s board.

• The University of Pennsylvania Law School, in Philadelphia, has received a $10-million donation from Robert Toll, chairman and chief executive officer of Toll Brothers, a Horsham, Pa., company that builds homes, and his wife, Jane. Half of the money will establish a scholarship program, and the remaining $5-million will help graduates pay off their law-school debts. Mr. Toll is a 1966 graduate of the law school.

• Barbara Manfrey Vogelstein, a retired partner of Apax Partners & Company Ventures, a venture-capital firm in London, and her husband, John L. Vogelstein, vice chairman of Warburg Pincus, an investment firm in New York, have given $10-million to Vassar College, in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. The money will support the new Center for Drama and Film. Ms. Vogelstein serves on Vassar’s Board of Trustees, and graduated from the college in 1976.

Other recent gifts:

Centenary College (Hackettstown, N.J.): $8-million from David and Carol Lackland, owners of Lackland Self-Storage, in Piscataway, N.J., to build a new arts center. Ms. Lackland graduated from the college in 1954.

City of Hope Cancer Center (Duarte, Calif.): $2.5-million from the family of Martin Collins, a Las Vegas builder who died in 2004, to endow a research post in the urology department. Mr. Collins was a patient at the center.

Cleveland Clinic Foundation: $1.5-million from Larry Pollock, managing partner of Lucky Stars Partners, a Cleveland investment firm, and his wife, Julia, for a new facility for the Heart and Vascular Medicine Institute. The foundation also received $1-million from Robert Duvin, founder of the Cleveland law firm Duvin, Cahn & Hutton, and his wife, Darlene, for the Heart and Vascular Medicine Institute and the Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Autism at Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital for Rehabilitation. The gift to the autism center is in memory of the couple’s son Scott, who died in 2004.

Community Foundation in Jacksonville (Fla.): $1-million from David A. Stein, founder of King Provision Corporation, a Burger King distributor in Jacksonville, for the endowment of the Greenwood School, a local private school. The foundation also received a matching donation of $1-million from Andrew J. McElvey, chairman and chief executive officer of Monster Worldwide, a job-search Web site based in New York, for the school’s endowment.

Fountain House (New York): $3-million pledge from Peter B. Lewis, chairman of Progressive Corporation, an insurance company in Mayfield Village, Ohio, and his son Adam, to build two new facilities for the organization, which helps people who are recovering from mental illness to function independently. The money will be paid over the next two years.

The Gunnery (Washington, Conn.): $1.3-million from Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Universal Sports and Olympics, and his wife, the actress Susan Saint James, to pay for a new dormitory at the boarding school. The couple made the donation in memory of their son Teddy, who attended the school and died in a plane crash in 2004.

Hofstra U. (Hempstead, N.Y.): $1-million from Marilyn Monter, vice president of the Holiday Organization, a real-estate development company in Westbury, N.Y., for campus improvements and scholarships for students in the Honors College and School of Law. Ms. Monter, a 1976 graduate of Hofstra Law School, is secretary of the university’s Board of Trustees.

John Muir Health Foundation (Walnut Creek, Calif.): $2.5-million from Theresa M. Caygill, of Walnut Creek, for a new building for the John Muir Medical Center.

National D-Day Museum (New Orleans): $1.5-million bequest from E. J. Ourso, founder of the Security Industrial Insurance Company, in Donaldsonville, La., to pay for a learning center where children and high-school students can learn about World War II. Mr. Ourso died in December 2005.

Truman State U. (Kirksville, Mo.): $3.4-million bequest from Lyle Ingraham, a former president and chief executive officer of Citizens Bank, in Browning, Mo., to endow scholarships. Mr. Ingraham, a 1925 graduate of Truman State, died in July 2005.

U. of California at San Diego: $5-million from Pauline Foster, president of Foster Investment Group, in San Diego, to endow a professorship at the Rady School of Management. A portion of the money will also go toward a new building.

U. of Oklahoma (Norman): $5-million from Cyril Wagner Jr., a co-founder of Wagner & Brown, an oil and gas company in Midland, Tex., and his wife, Lissa, to endow scholarships. Mr. Wagner is a 1957 graduate of the university.

Virginia Tech (Blacksburg): $5-million from William and Elizabeth Latham, founders of Budget Motels, in Manassas, Va., to endow research in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and pay for graduate fellowships, laboratory equipment, and undergraduate research. Mr. Latham is a 1955 graduate of the university.

Westminster Choir College of Rider U. (Princeton, N.J.): $5-million pledge from Marion Buckelew Cullen, a retired civilian assistant with the U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit, for a new building. Ms. Cullen served on the college’s Board of Trustees from 1983 to 1989.

Wright State U.-Lake Campus (Celina, Ohio): $2-million from the James F. Dicke family, who own the Crown Equipment Corporation, a company in New Bremen, Ohio, that manufactures electric-lift trucks. The money will be used to expand and renovate a building used for special campus events.

— Compiled by Maria Di Mento