$20-Million Pledged to UVa. for Sports Arena; Other Gifts

A Connecticut businessman has pledged $20-million over 10 years to the University of Virginia to help build a basketball arena. The donation was from Paul Tudor Jones II, who founded the Tudor Group, an investment company in Greenwich, Conn.

Other big gifts:

Bank Street College of Education (New York): $7-million from Philip A. Straus, a retired partner in Neuberger Berman, and his wife, Lynn, an alumna of the college, for unrestricted use.

Catholic Relief Services (Baltimore): $2-million and $1-million, respectively, from two anonymous donors, for unrestricted use.

Clemson U. (S.C.): $6.9-million pledge over 10 years from John E. Walker, the founder of Andesa TPA, a company that administers insurance policies, in Allentown, Pa., to expand the economics department.

Community Foundation Silicon Valley (San Jose, Calif.): $2.5-million pledge from Jeff Skoll, a co-founder of eBay, to the Skoll Community Fund to help health and human-service charities during the economic downturn.

Denver Museum of Nature & Science: $1.5-million from F.P. (Budd) Spratlen III, former president of the Ready Mix Concrete Company, in Denver, and his wife, Terry, to help build a new atrium.

Oklahoma City U.: Charitable-remainder annuity worth $12-million from Ann Lacy, a stock-market investor whose husband, Jim Alexander, was dean of the business school, for unrestricted use.

Purdue U. (West Lafayette, Ind.): $5-million from Allen Chao, of Anaheim, Calif., the chairman of Watson Pharmaceuticals, and his wife, Lee Hwa-Chao, for a pharmaceutical program.

Ripon College (Wis.): $1.2-million bequest from Lois Ripley Arnegard, of Laguna Woods, Calif., a stock-market investor who died in December, to create a scholarship fund for first- and second-year students in honor of her father, Edwin Arthur Ripley.

Santa Clara U. (Calif.): $15-million pledge from Don Lucas, of Atherton, Calif., a venture capitalist in Menlo Park, Calif., to help construct a building for the business school.

U. of Florida (Gainesville): $1-million pledge from Alexander Grass, of Harrisburg, Pa., who founded the Rite Aid chain of drugstores, to establish a professorship in Jewish studies.

U. of Iowa Foundation (Iowa City): $1.8-million bequest from Roland and Esther Smith, the former owners of Smith’s Cafe, in Iowa City, to benefit the men’s and women’s athletics programs.

U. of Massachusetts Medical School (Worcester): $16-million pledge from Jack Blais, of Framingham, Mass., who founded an optical-coating company that was bought by Corning, and his wife, Shelley. Of the total, $15-million is earmarked for the Aaron Lazare Medical Research Building, which the Blaises chose to name in honor of the medical school’s chancellor, and $1-million is designated for a discretionary fund for the chancellor.

U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: $10-million pledge from Alston Gardner, of Atlanta, the founder of On Target, a consulting company that was acquired by Siebel Systems, to provide scholarships for students to study at the National U. of Singapore, to create a program that will bring foreign students to the university’s business school, and to support other international-studies programs.

U. of St. Thomas (Houston): $1-million from Dennis Malloy, president of the Malloy Cash Register Company, in Houston; his sister, Michelle Malloy, an attorney, of Houston; and their mother, Felice Malloy, of Houston, to help construct a building for the university’s humanities programs and the school of education.