$40-Million Pledged to Hospital; Other Gifts

Several institutions have received big gifts:

• Riley Children’s Foundation, in Indianapolis, has received a pledge of $40-million from the Simon family of Indianapolis to help build a new inpatient facility for the Riley Hospital for Children, expected to be completed by 2013. Melvin and Herb Simon, who are brothers, co-founded and have since retired from the Simon Property Group, an Indianapolis company that develops malls and other properties. They currently own the Indiana Pacers professional basketball team. Melvin’s son, David, is chief executive officer of the Simon Property Group, and David’s wife, Jackie, serves on the foundation’s Board of Governors.
• The Beaumont Foundation, in Royal Oak, Mich., has received a pledge of $30-million from J. Peter Ministrelli, founder of the Ministrelli Development Company, a real-estate developer in Indian Wells, Calif., and his wife, Florine, to support cardiology and urology programs and research at Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak. The donation, which will come to the hospital’s foundation upon Mr. Ministrelli’s death, is earmarked for the Cardiology Research Magnetic Resonance Imaging Fund, the Center for Advanced Cardiovascular Imaging, the Program for Urology Research and Education, the Urology Institute, and the Women’s Heart Center, and will support two professorships. The couple had previously donated $20-million to the hospital’s foundation.
• Deborah Carstens, principal of Gunslinger Political Consulting, in Washington and Phoenix, has pledged $20.3-million to eight charities. The Arizona Community Foundation, in Phoenix, and the YMCA of San Diego County, in San Diego, will each receive about $3.3-million. The Telluride Foundation, in Colorado, and the Denver Foundation will be awarded about $750,000 apiece. The bulk of the donation will go to trusts created by Ms. Carstens and her late husband, William.
• T. Denny Sanford, who heads several credit-card companies in Minnesota, has pledged $20-million to the Burnham Institute for Medical Research, in La Jolla, Calif., to create two Sanford Children’s Health Research Centers — one in La Jolla, and another in Sioux Falls, S.D. The two facilities will collaborate to study childhood diseases. Mr. Sanford is chairman of United National Corporation, Premier Bankcard, and First Premier Bank, in Sioux Falls.
• Southern Methodist University, in Dallas, has received $20-million from Harold C. Simmons, founder and chairman of Contran, a holding company in Dallas, and his wife, Annette, for the university’s School of Education and Human Development. The Simmons requested that half the donation, $10-million, be used to help build a new facility for the school. Of the remainder, $5-million will endow graduate-student fellowships, and $5-million will endow a deanship and a faculty-recruitment fund. Mrs. Simmons graduated from Southern Methodist in 1957 with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education.
• The Children’s Museum of Los Angeles has received an unrestricted pledge of $10-million from an anonymous donor. The group will use the donation to help pay for exhibits and operations. The museum is building a new facility, scheduled to open in March 2009.
• The Nevada Cancer Institute, in Las Vegas, has received an unrestricted gift of $10-million from Jim and Glynda Rhodes. The institute will use the money to support cancer education, research, and treatment. Mr. Rhodes is founder and president of Rhodes Homes, a building company in Las Vegas, and Ms. Rhodes is vice president of interior and architectural design at Rhodes Homes.
• St. Mark’s School of Texas, in Dallas, has received a pledge of $10-million from an anonymous donor to support the endowment. The donor has promised to match all new gifts to the school’s building projects with an equal donation to the endowment.

Other recent gifts:

Aquinas College (Nashville): $1-million challenge gift from Jim Carell, chairman of CareAll Home Care Services, a Nashville staffing company that provides health-care workers to homebound patients, and his wife, Jan, to support the associate-degree nursing program. Mr. Carell is also president of CareAll Management and of Achiever Development Corporation, a home-building company in Nashville.

Baylor U. (Waco, Tex.): $5-million gift from Clifton Robinson, chairman of National Lloyds Insurance Company, in Waco, and his wife, Betsy, founder of Fuzzy Friends, an animal-rescue charity in Waco, to support scholarships for academically talented students. The Robinsons are both graduates of Baylor: Mr. Robinson graduated in 1963 with a bachelor’s degree in insurance, and his wife graduated in 1971 with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education.

Casper College (Wyo.): $1.8-million unrestricted bequest from Jack McCann, owner of McCann’s Jewelers, in Casper, Wyo. The college plans to use the donation for its capital campaign to build a Center for Training and Development. Mr. McCann died in 2006 at the age of 86.

Center for Urban Families (Baltimore): $1-million challenge gift from George Sherman, former president of the Danaher Corporation, a manufacturing company in Washington, and his wife, Betsy, for its capital campaign. This organization, which provides services for poor families, hopes to raise $7.5-million to build new headquarters and increase its endowment.

Converse College (Spartanburg, S.C.): $2.5-million from Stewart Johnson, owner of Morgan Corporation, a construction-site development company in Spartanburg, S.C., and his wife, Ann, to endow a professorship in history and a fund for research and development. The donation was made in honor of George Dean Johnson Jr., Mr. Stewart’s brother, who is a real-estate developer.

Dallas Center for the Performing Arts: $1-million from Joseph Irion Worsham, a retired lawyer in Dallas, his wife, Harriet, and their family for the capital campaign to build the center.

Dartmouth College (Hanover, N.H.): $2.5-million from Richard Pearl, senior managing director of First Manhattan Company, a private investment-management firm in New York, and his wife, Jane, to endow a professorship in environmental studies. Mr. Pearl, who received his undergraduate degree from Dartmouth in 1954, also graduated from its business school in 1955 with a master’s degree in business administration.

Duke U. (Durham, N.C.): $7.9-million from Jeffrey Gendell, a general partner at Tontine Associates, an investment firm in Greenwich, Conn., and his wife, Martha, to establish the Center for Engineering, Energy and the Environment. Mr. Gendell graduated from Duke in 1981.

Elkhart County Community Foundation (Elkhart, Ind.): $7.4-million bequest from Wilburt H. (Bill) Budd, a consultant and retired director of the CTS Corporation, an electrical-products manufacturing company in Elkhart, to benefit the First Congregational Church, also in Elkhart, and to provide unrestricted support for the foundation’s grant making. Mr. Budd, a founding board member at the community fund, died in 2006 at the age of 93.

Fielding Graduate U. (Santa Barbara, Calif.): $1-million from Nancy Owen Moss, a marriage and family therapist in San Marino, Calif., and her husband, George, for unrestricted support and the endowment. Ms. Moss received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the university in 1983.

Luther College (Decorah, Iowa): $1-million from Milton Roelfs, who is retired from the Peter Kiewat Company, a construction firm in Omaha, and his wife, Dorothy, a retired schoolteacher, to endow the maintenance of the Sampson Hoffland Science Center. That building was named for Ms. Roelfs’s parents with a previous donation of $2-million.

Missouri Western State U. Foundation (St. Joseph): $5-million pledge from Wes and Patsy Remington to help renovate the university’s math and science facilities. Mr. Remington is chairman and owner of Pet Resorts, a Scottsdale, Ariz., corporation that operates several pet-care companies. Mrs. Remington graduated from Missouri Western State U. in 1979 with a bachelor’s degree in social work.

Oberlin College (Ohio): $4-million pledge from an anonymous family in Cleveland to endow a professorship in environmental studies, pay for technological upgrades at the Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies, and support environmental planning by the college and the City of Oberlin. The college also received two additional gifts. Clyde McGregor, portfolio manager of the Oakmark Equity and Income Fund and a partner at Harris Associates, an investment firm in Chicago, pledged $4-million for Oberlin’s Litoff Building. Another $4-million was committed by Joseph Clonick, a retired pianist who lives in Chicago, to support a recording studio and performance space. Mr. McGregor graduated in 1974 with a bachelor’s degree in economics and religion, and Mr. Clonick received his undergraduate degree in music composition in 1957.

Purdue U., Krannert School of Management (West Lafayette, Ind.): $2-million from Steve Webster, co-founder and president of Avista Capital Partners, a private equity investment firm in New York, to support building and classroom improvements. Mr. Webster graduated from the business school in 1973 with a bachelor’s degree.

Scripps Research Institute (La Jolla, Calif.): $3-million from Mark Pearson, a managing partner at CresaPartners, a real-estate company in Palo Alto, Calif., to endow a professorship in alcohol and addiction research. Mr. Pearson is also co-founder and managing partner of Drawbridge Partners, a real-estate development and investment company in San Francisco.

Southern Methodist U. (Dallas): $5-million challenge gift from Edwin L. Cox, chairman of the Edwin L. Cox Company, a private investment-holding company in Dallas, to support scholarships for undergraduate business students.

Syracuse U. (N.Y.): $6-million pledge from Thomas C. Wilmot Sr., chairman of Wilmorite, a real-estate development company in Rochester, N.Y., and his wife, Colleen, to endow a professorship, a program fund for the dean, and scholarships in the College of Engineering and Computer Science. Mr. Wilmot graduated from the university in 1970.

Temple U., Boyer College of Music and Dance (Philadelphia): a pledge of rights and royalties valued at $6-million from Joy Abbott, the widow of George Abbott, the writer and director of such Broadway musicals as Damn Yankees and On Your Toes. The donation will help establish the new Center for Musical Theater at the college.

U. of Central Arkansas (Conway): $3-million bequest from Jake and Mary Ellen White Crow, who ran a 1,000-acre soybean and cotton farm in Elaine, Ark., to endow scholarships for descendants of their families and students from Arkansas’s Phillips and Faulkner Counties. Mrs. Crow died in May at the age of 87; her husband died in 1994.

U. of Illinois Foundation (Urbana): $1.6-million from Tony Petullo, founder and former president of Olsten Staffing Services, in Milwaukee, to endow a professorship and two fellowships in the School of Art and Design, and another professorship and two fellowships in the Department of Advertising. The university also received a gift of $1-million from Steve Miller, chairman of SLM Discovery Ventures, a consulting firm in Houston, and his wife, Sheila, to endow two funds for unrestricted support: one in the College of Education, and the other in the department of chemical and biomolecular engineering. In 1967, Mr. Miller, retired chairman of Shell Oil, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering and Ms. Miller received her bachelor’s degree in elementary education.

U. of Michigan (Ann Arbor): $2.6-million bequest from Wilbert H. (Bill) Budd, a consultant and retired director of the CTS Corporation, an electrical-products manufacturing company in Elkhart, Ind., to augment a scholarship fund that he had previously created for the College of Engineering.

U. of Missouri at Columbia: $2.6-million from Sam Cook, chairman of Central Bancompany, in Jefferson City, Mo., to endow a professorship in economics and support research. Mr. Cook attended the university before serving in World War II.