Art Collection Valued at $20-Million Is Donated to Israel Museum; Other Gifts

Several non-profit institutions have received big gifts.

* The Israel Museum in Jerusalem has received a collection of more than 700 Dada and Surrealist art works from Arturo Schwarz, a collector, scholar, and poet in Milan, Italy.

Experts have estimated the worth of the collection to be more than $20-million.

The gift includes paintings, drawings, collages, sculptures, photographs, and prints from more than 250 artists, among them Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray. The collection also includes works from artists considered by Mr. Schwarz to be precursors to Dada and Surrealism, including Hieronymus Bosch and Francisco Goya.

The museum will display 60 works beginning in May, and it plans to exhibit the entire collection in 2000.

The gift from Mr. Schwarz is the second recent windfall to be received by the museum. In December, Martin D. Gruss, a money manager, gave $42-million (The Chronicle, January 15).

* Mary Primrose Fuller, widow of A. C. Fuller, founder of the Fuller Brush Company, has bequeathed $15-million to the University of Hartford to endow its music and performing-arts school. Mrs. Fuller made no other stipulations.

It is estimated that the gift will provide up to $850,000 annually to the Hartt School. University officials are still exploring potential uses for the funds, including scholarships, professorships, and an annual performance in memory of Mrs. Fuller, who died in October.

* Walter H. Annenberg, the publisher and former ambassador to Great Britain, and Finn M. W. Caspersen, chairman of the Beneficial Corporation in Wilmington, Del., have pledged a total of $10-million to the Peddie School in Hightstown, N.J., a private school for grades 8 through 12.

The school had asked for the donors’ help to construct two new dormitories and to build addition al housing for faculty members, whose ranks swelled after Mr. Annenberg gave $100-million to the school in 1993. That gift, which endowed scholarships, freed up funds for the school to hire 21 additional teachers.

Other recent gifts:

Brookgreen Gardens (S.C.): $1,000,000 from the family of the late E. Craig Wall, Jr., of Conway, S.C., former chairman of the timber company Canal Industries, to establish a center that will focus on the environment and history of the coastal region of South Carolina.

Bush School (Wash.): $1,000,000 from anonymous donors for the Science and Technology Center. This kindergarten-through-12th-grade school must raise another $1-million by December in order to receive the gift.

California Polytechnic State U. at San Luis Obispo: $1,000,000 from Harold R. Hay of Los Angeles, an inventor and founder of Skytherm Processes and Engineering, and his late wife, Evelyn, for the College of Architecture and Environmental Design.

Catonsville Community College (Md.): $1,250,000 bequest from the estate of Grace M. Platzer of Baltimore, who managed the Aladdin Village Mobile Home Park with her late husband, Charles, for the Applied Technology Center and for scholarships, equipment, and continuing education for faculty members.

College of the Atlantic (Me.): $1,000,000 from the family of the late Elizabeth Battles Newlin of Northeast Harbor, Me., and Philadelphia, to endow a professorship in botany.

Emporia State U. (Kan.): $1,100,000 bequest from the estate of Elsie Borck of Marysville, Kan., a business teacher at Marysville High School, for scholarships and to endow the School of Business.

Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County (Fla.): $2,500,000 from Harvey Sandler of Boca Raton, Fla., a former vice-president at Goldman Sachs and founder of Sandler Capital Management, and his wife, Phyllis, a financial planner for the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company, for a day-care center for Alzheimer’s patients, and for an activities center.

The Jewish Museum (N.Y.): Art works from the 19th and 20th centuries valued at up to $5,400,000 from William Rand of New York, founder of the William Rand Corporation, a costume-jewelry company. The works will be auctioned, and proceeds from the sale will endow the museum’s educational programs.

The Johns Hopkins U. (Md.): $1,900,000 bequest from the estate of Blenda Hetherington of San Francisco, for unrestricted use, and $1,500,000 from Loretta Lee Ver Valen of Baltimore, an opera singer and teacher, to endow the Peabody Institute, the Wilmer Eye Institute, and the Oncology Center.

Johnson County Community College (Kan.): $1,000,000 bequest from the estate of Nell Mitchell of Overland Park, Kan., a high-school physical-education teacher, to endow scholarships in physical education.

Juvenile Diabetes Foundation International (N.Y.): $5,000,000 from Lawrence J. DeGeorge of Palm Beach, Fla., and his wife, Florence, partners in DeG Capital Partners Investment, for research on the transplantation of pancreatic islet cells.

Lake Forest College (Ill.): $1,000,000 from Edward K. Cleveland of Grants Pass, Ore., a retired colonel in the U.S. Army, and his wife, Bernice, to renovate a dormitory.

Meredith College (N.C.): $1,100,000 bequest from the estate of Edla Adams Ogburn of Garner, N.C., a teacher and an artist, for scholarships.

Nashville Zoo: $1,000,000 from Sandy Brooks of Nashville, wife of the country-music artist Garth Brooks, to construct a children’s zoo.

New Britain General Hospital (Conn.): $5,000,000 bequest from the estate of Samuel Wolfson of New Britain, Conn., an anesthesiologist, to establish a fund to benefit terminally ill patients.

Princeton U. (N.J.): $2,000,000 from Phillip Y. Goldman of Los Altos, Cal., co-founder and senior vice-president of engineering at WebTV Networks, and his wife, Susan, to endow a professorship in the computer-science department.

Regional Performing Arts Center (Pa.): $5,000,000 from Raymond G. Perelman of Philadelphia, chairman of the holding company Belmont Industries, and his wife, Ruth, for the campaign to build this arts complex.

Regis U. (Colo.): $3,000,000 from an anonymous donor for scholarships and to expand community-service programs for students. The university will also direct part of the gift to Denver-area Catholic high schools, and to the Holy Ghost Parish in Denver for programs to help needy people.

Saint Michael’s College (Vt.): $1,050,000 trust established by the late Paul Grimes of Burlington, Vt., former executive vice-president of Blodgett Ovens, and later bequeathed by his wife, Teresa, for scholarships.

State U. of New York at Albany: $1,000,000 from Edward George of Albany, N.Y., and Lake Wales, Fla., a retired night supervisor at the U.S. Postal Service in Albany, and his wife, Frances, for unrestricted use.

Trevecca Nazarene U. (Tenn.): $1,001,005 from Gerald Skinner of Brentwood, Tenn., chief executive officer of Compco, a company that produces financial-management software, and his wife, Eileen, for scholarships; $1,001,005 from Gerald Quick of Brentwood, chief operating officer of Compco, and his wife, Kay, for the library; and $1,000,000 from an anonymous donor for unrestricted use.

U. of Alabama at Birmingham: Charitable remainder annuity trusts valued at $2,000,000 from C. Caldwell Marks of Birmingham, Ala., retired president of Motion Industries, and his wife, Jeanne, for professorships in the study of heart disease and cancer.

U. of Arizona: $1,000,000 from Agnese Haury of Tucson, Ariz., widow of Emil Haury, an archaeologist, to relocate the Laboratory of Tree Ring Research.

U. of California at Irvine: $1,000,000 from Albert Nichols of Laguna Beach, Cal., a doctor and founder of the Nichols Institute, a medical-diagnostics firm, and his wife, Tricia, to endow a research position at the Institute of Brain Aging and Dementia.

U. of Denver: $2,000,000 from Robert E. Stanton of Denver, an engineer, land surveyor, and president of the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation, to endow a professorship in the biological-sciences department.

U. of Tennessee at Memphis: $1,000,000 bequest from the estate of Morrie A. Moss of Memphis, an investor and businessman, to endow a professorship in dermatology.

U. of Vermont: $1,500,000 from Richard Tarrant of South Burlington, Vt., president of IDX Systems Corporation, and his wife, Amy, for a new fitness and recreation center. Virginia Intermont College: $5,000,000 from Anne Rowell Worrell of Bristol, Va., president of Bristol Newspapers, and her husband, Thomas, for scholarships and capital improvements.

Walt Disney Concert Hall Committee (Cal.): $5,000,000 from an anonymous donor for the building campaign. Wofford College (S.C.): $1,000,000 from John H. Pitts of Clinton, S.C., and his wife, Anne, retired realtors, for a chair in Southern history.