Amherst Gets Nearly $25 Million for Emily Dickinson Museum (Gifts Roundup)

A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:

University of California at Los Angeles

Billionaires Henry and Susan Samueli gave $100 million to the Samueli School of Engineering to pay for 100 new professors in new research fields such as engineering in medicine, quantum technologies, and sustainable and resilient urban systems, and to enroll more undergraduate and graduate students in the engineering school.

Henry Samueli co-founded Broadcom, a semiconductor and software company, in 1991 when he was a professor of electrical engineering at the university. He is also an alumnus. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from UCLA in 1975 and 1976, and a Ph.D. in 1980.

Philadelphia Orchestra

An anonymous gift of $55 million from a donor-advised fund at the Silicon Community Foundation will go toward shoring up the organization, which declared bankruptcy in 2011, leading to a hiring freeze. Of the total, $50 million will go to an endowment and $5 million to operating expenses.

Amherst College

William McCall Vickery left about $25 million for endowment. Roughly $22 million of the bequest will pay for maintenance of the college’s Emily Dickinson Museum buildings, grounds, and collections, and the remainder will support the maintenance of pianos for the College’s Music Department.

Vickery retired in 1987 as vice chairman of Dancer Fitzgerald Sample International, an advertising firm in New York. A 1957 Amherst alumnus, he started a second career at his alma mater in 1988, holding positions in advancement and serving as assistant treasurer until his retirement in 2008.

Vickery was a founding member of the Dickinson Museum’s Board of Governors. He died in February at 83.

Catholic University of America

William and Joanne Conway donated $20 million to support a new nursing and sciences building for the School of Nursing, which has been named for the couple.

William Conway is a co-founder and co-chief executive officer of the Carlyle Group, a private-equity firm in Washington. With their latest gift, the Conways have given the university a total of $40 million over the years including support for scholarships for nursing students.

Consumer Reports

Craig Newmark gave $6 million through his Craig Newmark Philanthropies to pay for a new program called Digital Lab, an effort to research the ways in which technology products can threaten the privacy of consumers.

Newmark founded the classified advertising website Craig’s List and has become a prolific donor to journalism nonprofits, including $20 million in 2018 to establish the Markup, a nonprofit news organization that aims to investigate the societal impact of new technologies.

Duke University

Morris Williams Jr. donated $5 million to create an endowed scholarship fund to support graduate students at Duke Divinity School.

Williams founded Williams & Company, an investment firm, in 1997 and was previously a partner in Miller, Anderson & Sherrerd, an investment-management company.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in 1962 from Duke’s Trinity College of Arts & Sciences and a master’s degree in 1963 from Duke’s Graduate School. Several members of his family are also Duke alumni.

Rowan University

Gerald Shreiber pledged $3 million to establish the Shreiber Family Pet Therapy Program. Shreiber is president and chief executive of J&J Snack Foods Corporation in Pennsauken, N.J.

In recent years, Rowan’s Wellness Center has offered “Paws for a Break,” a popular program that enables students struggling with anxiety or depression to interact with certified therapy dogs. Shreiber cited the program’s success as one of the reasons he is donating the money.

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