$40-Million Donated to Oregon University for Medical School; Other Recent Gifts

Five institutions have received big gifts:

• The Oregon Health & Science University, in Portland, has received $40-million from an anonymous donor to help build a new medical school on the university’s planned campus near Portland’s South Waterfront.
• The Des Moines Art Center has received a pledge of 16 sculptures, in total worth at least $20-million, from John Pappajohn, a venture capitalist and entrepreneur in Des Moines, and his wife, Mary. The artworks will be displayed outside at Western Gateway Park, in Des Moines. The gift includes sculptures by Louise Bourgeois, Sir Anthony Caro, Willem de Kooning, Ellsworth Kelly, and Richard Serra, among others.
• Bernard Spitzer, a real-estate developer in New York, and his wife, Anne, have given $15-million to the American Museum of Natural History, in New York, to support its new Hall of Human Origins. The gift will also endow programs and research at the gallery.
• The Salvation Army of Greater New York, in New York City, has received a $10-million pledge from Lois M. Collier, wife of the late Reginald B. Collier, who was the founder of Research Systems, an advertising-research company in Evansville, Ind. The gift will pay for the expansion of two day-care centers in the Bronx, as well as for programs and endowment. Mr. Collier died in 2004. (This item corrects erroneous information that appeared in our print issue.)
• The University of Denver has received a $10-million pledge from John and Carrie Morgridge to support its College of Education. Half will help build a new education building, and the remaining $5-million will create the Institute for Early Learning and Literacy. Mr. Morgridge is the son of John P. Morgridge, chairman of Cisco Systems, in San Jose, Calif.

Other recent gifts:

Alzheimer’s Association San Diego/Imperial Chapter: $1-million from Donald and Darlene Shiley to establish awards for local Alzheimer’s research, encourage patients to participate in clinical trials, and enhance support services for those living with the disease. Mr. Shiley is a co-inventor of Pfizer’s Bjork-Shiley heart valve and retired owner of Shiley Inc., a medical-device manufacturer in Irvine, Calif. Ms. Shiley serves on the Board of Directors of the National Alzheimer’s Association, in Chicago.

Beaumont Hospital (Royal Oak, Mich.): $1-million from Charles J. Ghesquiere Jr., owner of Mercedes-Benz of Bloomfield Hills, an automobile dealership in Michigan, to help build the Family Center for Children’s Surgery. Mr. Ghesquiere is a member of the Board of Directors.

Carnegie Mellon U. (Pittsburgh): $5-million from Richard P. Simmons, retired chairman of Allegheny Technologies, a producer of stainless steel and other metals in Pittsburgh, to endow a professorship at the Tepper School of Business. Finn E. Kydland, who won the 2004 Nobel prize in economics, will be the first person appointed to the position.

Case Western Reserve U. (Cleveland): $2.3-million bequest from Marvin E. (Mike) Denekas, a retired lawyer for the U.S. Department of Justice, based in San Francisco, and his wife, Ruth, to endow a professorship and scholarships at the university’s Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing. Ms. Denekas, who died in 1994, worked as a nurse at Marin General Hospital, in Greenbrae, Calif. Mr. Denekas died last year.

Dallas Center for the Performing Arts: $4-million from Rusty Rose, founder and partner at Cardinal Investment Company, in Dallas, and his wife, Deedie, a charter member of the center’s Board of Directors, to help build the center. The Roses previously donated $6-million toward construction of the new venue, which is slated to open in 2009.

Dr. P. Phillips Orlando Performing Arts Center (Fla.): an unrestricted gift of $1-million from Harvey Massey, founder and president of Massey Services, a pest-control and landscaping company in Maitland, Fla., and his wife, Carol. The gift will be used to design and build the arts center.

Earlham College (Richmond, Ind.): $1-million from Shelby Davis, founder and chief executive officer of Davis Selected Advisors, an investment-management firm in Boston, and his wife, Gale, to support financial aid to enable international students to study at the college.

Eisenhower Medical Center (Rancho Mirage, Calif.): $5-million from Jim and Jackie Lee Houston, co-owners of KPSP, a CBS affiliate in Thousand Palms, Calif., for its capital campaign. The medical center also received $5-million from Harry Rinker, owner of the Rinker Company, a real-estate development firm in Newport Beach, Calif., and his wife, Diane, to help build a new orthopedics facility.

Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland: $1.25-million bequest from the estate of Herbert S. Bialosky, a lawyer in Cleveland, and his wife, Lois, for its endowment. Mr. Bialosky died in 2001 at the age of 83, and Ms. Bialosky died last year at 75.

Kansas State U. (Manhattan): $1-million pledge from Glenda Garrelts Mattes, a real-estate broker in Overland Park, Kan., to endow an award to encourage students to travel internationally. Ms. Mattes graduated from the university in 1965 with a bachelor’s degree in medical technology.

Marquette U. (Milwaukee): $5-million from Jim McShane, founder of the McShane Companies, a network of real-estate and construction companies based in Rosemont, Ill., and his wife, Kelly, to endow a professorship in construction-engineering management at the College of Engineering. Both Mr. and Ms. McShane graduated from the university in 1968; he received a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, and she earned a degree in psychology.

Miami U. (Ohio): artworks valued at $1.6-million from Edna Kelly, a retired antiques dealer in Centerville, Ohio, for the university’s art museum; $1.3-million unrestricted gift from the estate of John Steube; $1.1-million bequest from the estate of John F. Mee, a former professor and chairman of the Department of Management at Indiana U., in Bloomington, to create a fund at the Richard T. Farmer School of Business to endow professorships or an educational program that will advance the science and practice of management; and $1-million from an anonymous donor for the Men’s Ice Hockey Foundation.

National Prostate Cancer Coalition (Washington): $1-million challenge gift from Wade F.B. Thompson, chairman of Thor Industries, a recreational-vehicle manufacturer in Jackson Center, Ohio, to encourage donors to support cancer awareness, detection, and research. Mr. Thompson has survived colon and prostate cancer and melanoma.

New College of Florida (Sarasota): $2.7-million from Ulla Searing, widow of Arthur Searing, who was vice president of finance at the American International Group, an international insurance company headquartered in New York, to endow scholarships and student research and to provide faculty support. Mr. Searing died in 1983.

Northwest Foundation (Maryville, Mo.): $1.5-million pledge from an anonymous couple to provide unrestricted support and financial aid for needy students at Northwest Missouri State U.

Rice U. (Houston): $7-million from Bobby Tudor, principal of Tudor Capital, an energy-investment and banking firm in Houston, and his wife, Phoebe, to help renovate the basketball and volleyball facilities.

U. of Kentucky (Lexington): $5-million pledge from James Stuckert, a retired chairman of Hilliard Lyons, an investment firm in Louisville, Ky., and his wife, Diane, to endow a professorship, fellowships for international study, and a joint program in the College of Engineering and the College of Business. The university also received a pledge of $3-million from Bruce Bacon, a retired banker and developer, to endow a professorship in early-childhood mental health at the College of Social Work.

U. of Missouri at Columbia: $1-million pledge from the estate of Isobel (Robin) Degnan, a former classical concert pianist, to support musical arts. Ms. Degnan graduated from the university in 1948 with a bachelor’s degree in music performance. Her husband, James, a real-estate developer in Pasadena, Calif., died in 2003.

U. of Southern Indiana Foundation (Evansville): $5.1-million bequest from the estate of Henry W. Ruston, a florist in Evansville who died in 2005, to establish an endowment for academic programs and capital projects and for fund-raising efforts to renovate the university’s basketball arena. The university also received a $1.5-million pledge of cash and artworks from Stephen S. Pace, an abstract expressionist artist, and his wife, Palmina. The couple will donate more than 200 of Mr. Pace’s drawings, paintings, sketch books, and watercolors, worth about $500,000. The majority of the gift, $1-million in cash and a planned bequest, will help establish art galleries at the university’s McCutchan Art Center.

U. of Wisconsin at Madison: $1-million from Lenor Zeeh, a retired director and vice president of Rennebohm Drugstores, in Madison, to support the Lenor Zeeh Pharmaceutical Experiment Station, a research and development laboratory at the university’s School of Pharmacy.

Virginia Commonwealth U. (Richmond): $2-million pledge from Inger Rice to help construct an education-outreach building at the Inger and Walter Rice Center for Environmental Life Sciences. In 2000, Ms. Rice and her late husband donated 343 acres to the university to build the center. Mr. Rice was the senior vice president at Reynold Metals, in Richmond, and an ambassador to Australia.

— Compiled by Anne W. Howard