$50-Million Bequeathed to Cornell

$50-Million Bequeathed to Cornell

Two higher-education institutions received large bequests and pledges:

• The Weill Medical College of Cornell U., in New York, has received a $50-million unrestricted bequest from an anonymous donor. The gift will be used to match donations to the college’s capital campaign. The campaign is raising funds for the college’s endowment, medical education, and new clinical programs emphasizing the brain, diseases of aging, the heart, women’s and children’s health, and a variety of specialty-care areas, including dermatology.
• The University of Iowa Foundation, in Iowa City, has received a $25-million pledge from Mary Joy Stead and her husband, Jerre, both alumni, to support the College of Business. The couple will give $3.9-million over the next 10 years for capital improvements, programs, technology, and a professorship in leadership. The balance of the pledge will be fulfilled after their deaths. Mr. Stead is the retired chairman and chief executive officer of Ingram Micro, in Santa Ana, Calif., a distributor of technology products and services.

Other recent gifts:

Community Foundation for the Capital Region (Albany, N.Y.): $4.6-million from J. Spencer Standish, of Loudonville, N.Y., for the endowment. Mr. Standish is chairman emeritus of Albany International, a producer of specialized fabrics for the papermaking industry.

Johns Hopkins U. (Baltimore): $4-million from Philip Merrill, president and chairman of the Export Import Bank of the United States, in Washington, and a former university trustee, to create a center for strategic studies at the university’s School of Advanced International Studies, in Washington.

Montana State U. at Billings Foundation: $1-million from Norm Asbjornson, an alumnus and founder and president of AAON, in Tulsa, Okla., for scholarships.

Montana State U. at Bozeman: $3-million from the friends and family of Gary K. Bracken, of Sidney, Mont., an alumnus and former cable-company executive who died in April 2001. The gift will support a center for undergraduate business studies.

National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (Washington): $1.1-million from an anonymous donor, of which $500,000 is earmarked for grants to community organizations.

Pennsylvania State U. (State College): $2-million from Helen Skade Hintz and her husband, Edward, both alumni, to construct a building for the College of Business Administration. Mr. Hintz is president of the university’s Board of Trustees and president of Hintz, Holman and Robillard, a money-management firm in New York.

Southern Illinois U. at Carbondale: $4.5-million from Thomas P. (Pete) Wittmann, an initial investor in Excel Telecommunications, in Dallas, to construct an athlete-training facility.

Texas Lutheran U. (Seguin): Bequest of at least $4-million in land and other assets from Annie Vogel Tschoepe, of New Braunfels, Tex., to support the construction of a building for the College of Professional Studies. Mrs. Tschoepe died in March 2002.

U. of Virginia (Charlottesville): $12-million from Hunter Smith and her husband, Carl, an alumnus and founder of Amvest Corporation, a coal-mining, finance, and gas-production company, in Charlottesville, to construct a performing-arts center.