December 4, 2020 | Read Time: 6 minutes
A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:
MetroHealth System
Bob and JoAnn Glick gave $42 million to create two funds aimed at improving local health care in the greater Cleveland area. The first, the JoAnn and Bob Glick Fund for Healthy Communities will back programs that promote health and well-being with a focus on programs that address the needs of women and children.
The second fund, the JoAnn Zlotnick Glick Endowed Fund in Community Health Nursing, will support the role of nurses as leaders in improving health care in and around Cleveland. This fund will also endow a professorship in Case Western Reserve University’s Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, where JoAnn Glick received her MSN in community health nursing.
Bob Glick founded and led Dots Inc., a women’s clothing retail chain that he sold to Irving Place Capital, a New York private equity firm, in 2011. The company went out of business in 2014.
Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health
Dana and David Dornsife gave $9 million to establish the Center on Racism and Health, endow a dean’s post for public health, and recruit faculty who are experts on racial inequities in health care.
David Dornsife is chairman of the Herrick Corporation, a steel fabricator and contractor in Stockton, Calif. Dana Dornsife founded the Lazarex Cancer Foundation. She earned a bachelor’s degree in business from Drexel in 1983.
The Dornsifes have given extensively to nonprofits and have appeared on the Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50 list of the biggest donors twice. They have given the university more than $70 million over the years, including a $45 million gift in 2015 for the School of Public Health, which was then named for them.
Kennesaw State University
Norman and Lindy Radow donated $9 million to back the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, which will be named for Norman Radow. The Radows earmarked $2 million of the gift to be used to establish the Lindy Radow Humanities and Social Sciences Honors Scholarship Endowment Fund.
Norman Radow is the founder and chief executive officer of the RADCO Companies, a real-estate investment firm in Atlanta.
Hoag Hospital Foundation
George and Julia Argyros donated $7.5 million to expand the hospital’s nursing program, which was named the Julia Argyros Center for Nursing Excellence in 2016 when the couple gave a previous $7.5 million. The center provides scholarships for Hoag nurses.
George Argyros is a real-estate investor who founded Arnel & Affiliates, a property-management company in Costa Mesa, Calif., and owned the Seattle Mariners baseball team from 1981 to 1989. He served as U.S. ambassador to Spain from 2001 to 2004.
The couple have given tens of millions of dollars to Hoag to back patient-care efforts and its nursing program. With this most recent donation, they have given a total of $15 million toward the nursing program.
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Tim and Kay Bradley gave $5 million to back a construction project that is reconfiguring a road that will lead to the university’s entrance.
Tim Bradley retired in 2013 as president of Kinder Morgan CO2, a Houston company that produces, transports, and markets carbon dioxide and oil. He graduated from Missouri S&T in 1977 with a bachelor of science degree in petroleum engineering and worked for Shell Oil Company before joining Kinder Morgan in 2000.
Princeton University
Eric and Wendy Schmidt donated $5 million through their Schmidt Family Foundation to create and endow the new Eric and Wendy Schmidt Professor of Indigenous Studies.
“The thoughtful study of Indigenous cultures is an essential component of society’s reckoning with our own history,” said Wendy Schmidt in a news release. “It’s our hope that this professorship will play a vital role in advancing that complex conversation.”
Eric Schmidt served as chief executive of Google from 2001 to 2011, and as executive chairman of Google from 2011 to 2015 and of its parent company Alphabet from 2015 to 2017. He graduated from Princeton in 1976. The couple are longtime donors to nonprofits and have appeared on Philanthropy 50 twice.
Rider University
Michael Hennessy donated $4 million for a new wing for its science and technology building, which will be named the Mike and Patti Hennessy Science and Technology Center.
Hennessy founded MJH Life Sciences, a medical media company in Cranbury, N.J., that provides communications products and services, education, and research information to professionals in the pharmaceutical, medical device, diagnostic and biotechnology fields.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Rider in 1982 and met the woman who would become his wife, Patrice “Patti” Shelmet Hennessy, there when they were both students. Patti Hennessy graduated from Rider in 1982 with a bachelor’s degree in office administration. She died in January after a long illness.
Northern Vermont University
Mark and Molly Valade pledged $3.5 million to help build the NVU Learning and Working Community, a partnership between the university and businesses and organizations throughout northern Vermont that will provide hands-on work, career-related education, and networking opportunities for students.
The program is an effort to encourage students to stay and build their careers in Vermont, where there is an acute work-force shortage. The couple will pay off the pledge over the next three years.
Mark Valade is chief executive officer of Carhartt, a Dearborn, Mich., company that manufactures work and hunting clothes and fire-resistant apparel. He graduated from Lyndon State College, now NVU-Lyndon, in 1978.
Hampshire College
Lucy McFadden gave $2 million for the college’s efforts to raise $60 million by 2024 for academic programs and to shore up the struggling college’s finances.
McFadden, a scientist and namesake of her own asteroid, retired in 2016 from from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. She served as a co-investigator for NASA’s Deep Impact and Dawn Robotic Space Missions and led the agency’s education and public-outreach programs aimed at inspiring students to study science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. She joined the Goddard Space Flight Center as chief for higher education in 2010, directing the internship program for students and postdoctoral scientists.
She was founding director of the University of Maryland’s College Park Scholars, Science, Discovery, and the Universe program. McFadden earned a bachelor’s degree from Hampshire in 1970 and has served on its Board of Trustees since 2013.
Feeding America
Basketball great Michael Jordan donated $2 million to help people in Chicago and the Carolinas who are struggling to feed themselves and their families in the wake of the pandemic.
In June he pledged $50 million to back organizations that work to advance racial equality, social justice, and access to education. The Nike-owned athletic wear and shoe company Jordan Brand contributed an additional $50 million to the effort.
Jordan is the chairman and principal owner of the National Basketball Association’s Charlotte Hornets. Before he retired from the court, he played 15 seasons in the NBA, with the Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards.
To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated throughout the week.
