Belmont U. Lands $58 Million From Nashville Music Executive

A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:

Belmont University

Nashville music leader and former politician Mike Curb gave $58 million through his Mike Curb Foundation to support the expansion the Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business. The money will pay for renovations of the Buddy Lee Attractions/Capitol Records building at the Christian college in Nashville. When completed, it will include more songwriting rooms, listening spaces, live-sound classrooms, and student lounges. A portion of the money will also help pay for the construction of a new facility that will house a performance venue and networking and gathering places for students and industry professionals.

Curb is a longtime music executive, songwriter, and producer who founded Sidewalk Records in 1964 when he was a student at what is now California State University at Northridge. Sidewalk merged with MGM Records in 1969, and Curb became president of MGM Records. Sidewalk later became Curb Records, which he continues to lead.

Curb entered politics in 1976 when he served as co-chairman of the Ronald Reagan California Campaign for President and later for President Gerald Ford’s California campaign. He later ran for office and was elected Lieutenant Governor of California in 1978.

St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital Foundation

Brothers Sidd and Rahul Pagidipati and their sister, Srujani Pagidipati, gave $50 million to pay for the construction of a new pediatric facility in Tampa, Fla., which will be named Pagidipati Children’s Hospital at St. Joseph’s. The building is scheduled for completion in 2030.

The Pagidipati siblings said in a news release that they are giving the money to honor their parents, Devaiah and Rudrama Pagidipati, physicians who founded the insurance companies Suncoast Labs and Freedom Health, and to celebrate their parents’ 50th wedding anniversary and 50th anniversary of emigrating to the United States.

Sidd Pagidipati is a former investment banker who co-founded, with his father, Medicare Advantage HMO. He also founded the Tampa Bay health-care provider Better Health Group. Rahul and Srujani Pagidipati are both lawyers. Rahul co-founded Anion Technologies and Brave Software, and Srujani manages Ayon Capital, the Pagidipatis’ family office.

Art Institute of Chicago

Alexandra Nichols gave $25 million through her John D. and Alexandra C. Nichols Family Foundation to support a new building and campus renovation projects. Nichols has served on the museum’s Board of Trustees since 2005 and is also a member of the institute’s Painting and Sculpture of Europe Advisory Committee. She worked as a reporter for Fortune magazine in the 1970s.

Nichols’s late husband, John, led Illinois Tool Works for 14 years before retiring in the 1990s. He came out of retirement in 2002 to lead Marmon Group, the management arm of an industrial manufacturer in Chicago. He retired from that post in 2005. John Nichols died in 2023 at 92. With this latest gift, the Nicholses have given the museum donations totaling nearly $50 million.

Hoag Hospital Foundation

Ben and Carmela Du gave $25 million for a campus expansion project that is scheduled for completion in 2026. One of the buildings on the Irvine, Calif., medical center’s campus will be named the Du Family Hospital Pavilion.

The couple immigrated to the United States after graduating from college in the Philippines, so that Ben Du could attend California State University at Fullerton, where he earned an MBA. The couple founded the Flojet Corporation, a manufacturer of industrial water pumps and accessories in 1975, and ran the company for more than two decades before selling it to ITT Industries in 1999 for an undisclosed sum.

Nicklaus Children’s Hospital

Helen and Jacob Shaham gave $15 million to support pediatric cancer care and research programs within the hospital’s cancer and blood disorders institute, which has been renamed the Helen & Jacob Shaham Cancer & Blood Disorders Institute.

Helen and Jacob Shaham founded the Palace Group in 1980. The company develops and operates luxury retirement communities and nursing and assisted-living residences throughout South Florida. The couple said in a news release that seeing Helen Shaham’s father and Jacob Shaham’s twin brother both die from cancer inspired them to make the donation.

Carnegie Mellon University

Cindy and Tod Johnson pledged $10 million to support public art programs on the university’s Pittsburgh campus. The Johnsons are directing $5 million of the total to establish the Tod and Cindy Johnson Endowment for Public Art, which will provide funding for the university’s public art program and its Institute for Contemporary Art Pittsburgh. The remaining $5 million will support the construction of the institute’s new home in the Richard King Mellon Hall of Sciences.

The Johnsons met and married while they were both Carnegie Mellon students. Cindy Johnson earned a bachelor’s degree in art in 1968 and became an arts advocate who has been involved with the Guggenheim Museum in New York City and the Neuberger Museum of Art in Harrison, N.Y.

Tod Johnson earned a bachelor’s degree in graphic-arts management in 1966 and a master’s degree in industrial administration in 1967. He led the NPD Group, a global market-research firm in Port Washington, N.Y., for 51 years and currently serves as chairman of the Board of Directors for Circana, a company that grew out of the merger of NPD and IRI in 2023. Tod Johnson also co-founded Duo Partners, a N.Y. investment and consulting firm, where he serves as managing partner.

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