$28-Million Committed to Marquette U.; Other Gifts

Three universities and one medical center have received big gifts:

• William and Mary Diederich have pledged $28-million to Marquette University, in Milwaukee, for its College of Communication. The money will endow building renovations, professorships, scholarships, and research, and pay for guest speakers. It will also be used to update the college’s audio and visual broadcasting studios. The couple, who are both alumni, live in Incline Village, Nev. Mr. Diederich, who retired from Landmark Communications, in Norfolk, Va., in 1990, helped start the Weather Channel, and Ms. Diederich is a musician.
• Rush University Medical Center, in Chicago, has received a $20-million pledge from John M. Boler, of Chicago, chairman of the Boler Company, a manufacturer of truck-suspension systems in Itasca, Ill., and his wife, Mary Jo, for a new advanced imaging center and an endowment. The money will be paid out over five years. Mr. Boler is a trustee of the medical center, and both he and Ms. Boler have been patients at Rush Medical Center.
• The University of California at Berkeley has received a pledge of $16-million from Charles T. Travers, of Greenbrae, Calif., a former U.S. Army colonel and the retired vice president of land development at BHP Utah Minerals International. Mr. Travers, a 1932 graduate of the university, earmarked $12-million of the gift, which will be paid over 10 years, for an endowment in the university’s political-science department that will pay for faculty recruitment, graduate-student fellowships, and undergraduate scholarships. The remaining $4-million will be used for the university’s football program.
• Columbia University, in New York, has received a $12-million pledge from H.F. (Gerry) Lenfest, founder of Lenfest Communications, in Wilmington, Del., and chair of the Lenfest Foundation, in West Conshohocken, Pa. The money will establish the Distinguished Columbia Faculty Awards, which will honor exceptional teaching in the arts and sciences. Mr. Lenfest serves on the university’s Board of Trustees.

Other recent gifts:

Archer School for Girls (Los Angeles): $5-million pledge from an anonymous donor to endow a financial-aid fund for needy students.

U. of Arkansas at Fayetteville: $7.6-million from Don Tyson, the former chairman of Tyson Foods, in Springdale, Ark., and his family for academic programs in the College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences, the Arkansas Center for Oral and Visual History, and a new fraternity house.

U. of Florida (Gainesville): $1-million pledge from John Higdon, a 1959 graduate of the university’s College of Business, and his wife, Emily, to provide fellowships for graduate students. Mr. Higdon, who has served on the university foundation’s Board of Directors, was president of Higdon Grocery, in Quincy, Fla., and now runs Higdon Investment, also in Quincy.

U. of Missouri at Columbia: $8.5-million from William and Nancy Thompson, of Newport Beach, Calif., for a new research center on autism and neurodevelopmental disorders. The money will help pay the salaries for five researchers at the center, and endow chairs in child health and radiology at the university’s medical school. Mr. Thompson, the chief executive officer of Pimco, an investment firm in Newport Beach, graduated from the university in 1968.

U. of North Carolina at Asheville: $3-million pledge from Steve and Frosene Zeis to establish two scholarship funds. Mr. Zeis attended the university but graduated from North Carolina State U., in Raleigh. The couple owns ZTM Sales and Service, a textile-machinery manufacturer in Asheville.