July 29, 2008 | Read Time: 1 minute
The Patterson Foundation, in Sarasota, Fla., has received a bequest of $225-million from the estate of Dorothy Clarke Patterson, who died last year. Ms. Patterson established the foundation in 1997 with a donation of $3-million.
The foundation is free to use the money as it sees fit.
Ms. Patterson’s husband, James, who died in 1992, was vice president and assistant managing editor at the Daily News, in New York, a newspaper that his father co-founded with Robert R. McCormick, a cousin. Mr. Patterson was also a descendant of Joseph Medill, who was one of the founding partners of the Tribune Company, in Chicago, and a former mayor of Chicago.
The Patterson Foundation has not yet selected a focus for its grant making now that it will receive such a major infusion, but has previously donated to Cardinal Mooney High School, Habitat for Humanity Sarasota, All Faiths Food Bank, and other organizations in Sarasota. The foundation expects to disburse $11-million in 2009.
The gift propels the Patterson fund to No. 19 in the ranks of the largest grant makers in Florida.
Its president will be Debra Jacobs, president of the William G. Selby and Marie Selby Foundation, also in Sarasota. She will begin her tenure at Patterson in 2009.
The bequest is one of the five biggest gifts announced so far this year. To see more about big donations, check out The Chronicle’s searchable database of large contributions.
