$60-Million Donated to University; Other Gifts

Eight institutions have received big gifts:

• The University of St. Thomas, in St. Paul, has received a pledge of $60-million from Lee and Penny Anderson for its $500-million capital campaign. The gift has been earmarked for a new student center and improvements to athletic and recreational facilities. Mr. Anderson, a member of the university’s Board of Trustees, is owner and chairman of APi Group, a corporation in St. Paul that comprises 30 construction, manufacturing, and fire-protection companies.
• The estate of James Thomas (J.T.) Emerson, who died in 2005 at the age of 82, has endowed the J.T.-Minnie Maude Charitable Trust, in Danville, Va., with $50-million. The trust will make grants to support higher education in three Virginia counties and two counties in North Carolina, and to support charities in the Danville and Pittsylvania County area. Mr. Emerson was an industrial engineer who worked for Kellogg’s, Mobay Chemical, Procter & Gamble, and other companies; he also invested money in the stock market. The trust is also named for his mother, Minnie Maude Owen Emerson.
• The School of Social Work at New York University has received a commitment of $50-million from Constance Silver, a forensics trainer and consultant with the police department in Indian Creek Village, Fla., and her husband, Martin, founding partner at Life Resources, a plasma-collection company in Mt. Kisco, N.Y., that was sold to the British government in 2002. Their gift will endow a fellowship for graduate students who are interested in helping minorities, as well as a professorship for a junior faculty member who is researching poverty, and will support the school’s operations and programs on poverty. Additionally, the money will help establish the Institute for Poverty Policy and Practice. Ms. Silver graduated from the university in 1978 with a bachelor’s degree and in 1979 with a master’s degree, both in social work, and taught for several years at the School of Social Work. Mr. Silver received his bachelor’s degree at New York University in business in 1958.
• Dan L. Duncan, founder and chairman of Enterprise Products, an energy company in Houston, and his wife, Jan, have promised $50-million to Texas Children’s Hospital, in Houston, to establish an institute for neurological disorders in children. The gift will support research, education, and the treatment of pediatric neurological disorders such as autism, cerebral palsy, and epilepsy at the institute, which is scheduled to open in 2010. The hospital is affiliated with Baylor College of Medicine, to which Mr. Duncan and his family pledged $100-million last year for a cancer center. Mrs. Duncan is a member of the children’s hospital’s Board of Trustees.
• Irwin M. Jacobs, founder and chairman of Qualcomm, a wireless-communications company in San Diego, and his wife, Joan, have given $30-million to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, to endow fellowships for graduate students in the School of Engineering. Mr. Jacobs graduated from the university in 1957 with a master’s degree and in 1959 with his Ph.D, both in electrical engineering and computer science.
• West Virginia University, in Morgantown, has received $25-million from Ben Statler, founder and former president of PinnOak Resources, a mining company in Canonsburg, Pa., and his wife, Jo. Of the gift, $5-million will purchase a mobile digital-mammography unit and help recruit physicians to the cancer center. The remaining $20-million will support health-sciences programs and the College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, and will buy a new scoreboard for the university’s Coliseum. Mr. Statler graduated in 1973 with a bachelor’s degree in mining engineering.
• The University of Maine at Orono has received a bequest of $12-million from the estate of George L. Houston, who founded an engineering- and surveying-consulting business, to endow scholarships for students in the School of Forest Resources. In 1995, Mr. Houston, who died this year at the age of 91, donated his 217-acre farm for the university’s Green Endowment Program. He graduated from the university in 1937 with a bachelor’s degree in forestry.
• The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has received a pledge of $10-million from Robert Springborn, founder of Springborn Laboratories, a research company in Enfield, Conn., and his wife, Carolyn, an art collector and sculptor, to support graduate and postdoctoral fellowships and undergraduate scholarships in the department of chemistry. Dr. Springborn graduated from the university in 1951 with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry.

Other recent gifts:

Anderson Hospital (Maryville, Ill.): $1-million from Marcia Billhartz, the widow of Warren Billhartz, who was the founder and chairman of FCB Banks, in Collinsville, Ill., to support cancer research, patient care and services, education, and community outreach at the hospital’s cancer center. Mr. Billhartz died last year at the age of 79.

Carnegie Mellon U. (Pittsburgh): $5-million from Raymond J. Lane, general partner at Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers, a venture-capital fund in Menlo Park, Calif., and his wife, Stephanie, to establish a center for computational biology, and endow a professorship and doctoral and postdoctoral training in computational biology, which aims to improve the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.

Cleveland Zoological Society: $1-million from Steve and Lauren Spilman, co-founders of Findaway World, a maker of digital audiobooks in Solon, Ohio, and their children, to help build a new African-elephant exhibit.

Cornell College (Mount Vernon, Iowa): $5-million pledge from John Smith, president of CRST International, a cargo-transportation company in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and his wife, Dyan, for the endowment and capital projects. Mr. Smith, a member of the college’s Board of Trustees, graduated from Cornell College in 1971 with a bachelor’s degree in economics and business.

Easter Seals Greater Washington-Baltimore Region (Calverton, Md.): $1-million from Craig Ruppert, chief executive officer of Ruppert Companies, a commercial-landscaping and real-estate corporation in Laytonsville, Md., to the organization’s capital campaign. Mr. Ruppert is a board member and chair of the campaign.

Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International (New York): $2-million unrestricted gift from anonymous donors. The group will use the gift to research a cure for diabetes.

Royal Shakespeare Company America (New York): $5-million from Christopher Seton Abele, president of the theater company and of the Argosy Foundation, in Milwaukee, to support the capital campaign of the Royal Shakespeare Company, the group’s counterpart in England. Mr. Abele’s father, John, founded Boston Scientific, a medical-device developer and manufacturer in Natick, Mass.

Sonoma State U. (Rohnert Park, Calif.): $4-million from Jean Schulz, the widow of the late cartoonist Charles M. Schulz, who created the Peanuts comic strip, for its capital campaign to build a music center. Ms. Schulz is also president of the Charles M. Schulz Museum, in Santa Rosa, Calif., and received a bachelor’s degree from the university in English in 1968. The Schulzes previously gave $1-million to the music-center project.

U. of Denver: $7.5-million from Frederick S. Pardee, a real-estate investor and former systems analyst at the RAND Corporation, in Santa Monica, Calif., for its Graduate School of International Studies. The money will endow the Center for International Futures and help build a pavilion there.

U. of Texas at Austin: $5-million from Robert S. Strauss, co-founder of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, an international law firm based in Washington, and a former U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union, to establish a research center on global affairs. Mr. Strauss graduated from the university’s law school in 1941.

To submit announcements of donations from individuals of $1-million or more, please send an e-mail message to gifts@philanthropy.com.