A Grateful Patient Leaves Texas Heart Institute $32 Million

A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:

Texas Heart Institute

Frederick Weissman left the institute $32 million as a way of thanking the medical center for saving his life nearly 40 years ago. He died in 2005, but the institute didn’t receive the bequest until now.

Weissman was treated by Denton Cooley, a cardiac surgeon at the institute, in the mid-1980s, and the two men became lifelong friends. Weissman gave the institute a total of $510,000 during his lifetime.

He was a neurologist who practiced in New York. Before becoming a physician, he served in a U.S. Army Air Force intelligence operation in Germany during World War II. He later served as a medical officer in the U.S. Air Force Reserves.

Wayne State University

Seema Boesky gave $20 million to establish the Ben L. Silberstein Institute for Brain Health. The institute is named for Boesky’s late father and will be located inside the university’s Integrative Biosciences Center, in Detroit.

Boesky is an art collector and heiress. At age 13, she inherited a 48 percent interest in the Beverly Hills Hotel Corporation, which was part of a real-estate and hotel empire built by Silberstein, a Detroit lawyer and real-estate magnate who died in 1979. She and her former husband, the infamous Wall Street investor Ivan Boesky, owned the hotel for several years in the 1980s before selling it in 1986 for $136 million.

Jespy House

Leon and Toby Cooperman gave nearly $13.3 million through their Leon and Toby Cooperman Family Foundation to establish the Cooperman Family Campus at Jespy and to back expansion efforts. The South Orange, N.J., nonprofit provides a range of services for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Specifically, the money will go toward building new residential units, community spaces where clients can socialize, expanded education and training facilities, a new library and technology center, and additional health and recreational facilities.

Leon Cooperman is chairman and chief executive officer of Omega Advisors, a hedge fund he founded in 1991, and a former chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, both in New York. Toby Cooperman is a longtime advocate for people with developmental disabilities. She retired after a long career as a special-education specialist at the Early Childhood Learning Center in Chatham, N.J.

Brevard Zoo

David and Sara Scaife gave $5 million through their DSF Charitable Foundation to support the construction of a new aquarium and conservation center in Port Canaveral, Fla., and to back a sea-turtle-rehabilitation center that will be housed in the aquarium and named for the donors.

David Scaife is an heir to the Mellon banking and oil fortune. His late father, Richard Mellon Scaife, owned the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and other newspapers, and he founded the Allegheny Foundation, which supports civic development, education, and historic preservation in western Pennsylvania.

Tulane Athletics

Libby and Robert Alexander pledged more than $2.7 million to build a new headquarters for Community Sailing New Orleans, a nonprofit that hosts Tulane University’s varsity sailing program and provides educational and recreational programs on Lake Pontchartrain, in New Orleans’s marina district, for people of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities.

Libby Alexander is a 1984 Tulane graduate and member of the Board of Tulane. The couple helped grow Connolly Inc., now Cotiviti, a health-care analytics company. Libby Alexander served as CEO of Connolly and led its rebranding as Cotiviti, where she served as vice chair of the board until 2018. Robert Alexander ran his own computer company before joining Connolly Inc. as its chief information officer.

The Alexanders gave the university $12.5 million earlier this month to support a universitywide data-science program that will expand teaching and research efforts across all academic fields.

To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated regularly.