Bucknell U. Gets $11-Million for New Athletics Center; Other Donations

Three universities have announced big gifts.

* Bucknell University, in Lewisburg, Pa., has received $11-million from the broker Kenneth G. Langone, and his wife, Elaine, to help construct a new athletics center.

Mr. Langone earned his bachelor’s degree from the university in 1957. The Sands Point, N.Y., resident is founder of Invemed Associates, an investment-banking and brokerage company in New York.

The new facility will include a pool, a student-fitness center, and a 3,800-seat arena; officials expect the venue will cost $23-million.

* David L. Lee, president of Global Crossing, a fiber-optics company in the Bahamas, and his wife, Ellen, have given $10-million to the California Institute of Technology, in Pasadena. They made the donation to establish a center to improve telecommuncations; the Lee Center for Advanced Networking will focus on connecting computers through wireless and high-bandwidth wired channels.

* The University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, in Minneapolis, has announced a $10-million donation from Curtis L. Carlson, a long-time university benefactor who died in February, and his family.

The majority of the gift, $8-million, will endow the Carlson School of Management, which Mr. Carlson financed in 1986. The remainder will support a new alumni and visitors center.

Mr. Carlson was chairman of Carlson Companies, a conglomerate of hospitality, marketing, and travel businesses.

Other recent gifts:

Duke U. (N.C.): $5,000,000 bequest from the estate of Tobias C. (Zollie) Sherrill of Charlotte, N.C., president of T. A. Sherrill Construction Company, to endow athletic scholarships.

Furman U. (S.C.): $1,000,000 bequest from the estate of Kathleen A. Riley of Charleston, S.C., a retired dermatologist, for scholarships for women who major in pre-medicine and sciences, and $1,000,000 from an anonymous donor to purchase a pipe organ for the chapel.

Gettysburg College (Pa.): $1,000,000 from C. B. (Jack) Rogers of Atlanta, former chairman of Equifax, a company that helps businesses use technology, to establish the Center for Innovation in Technology.

Hope College (Mich.): $3,000,000 bequest from the estate of Martha Miller of Holland, Mich., widow of Howard Miller, founder of a clock company, to construct a center for the dance program.

Jewish Theological Seminary (N.Y.): $8,000,000 from William Davidson of Auburn Hills, Mich., chairman of Guardian Industries, which makes glass products, and owner of the Detroit Pistons basketball team, to endow the Graduate School of Jewish Education. Mr. Davidson established the school with a $15-million gift in 1994.

Loomis Forest Fund (Wash.): $1,500,000 from an anonymous donor for this fund to preserve a state-owned forest tract by offsetting the loss of logging income.

Michigan State U.: $3,000,000 from William E. Dunlap and Donald R. Myers of Big Canoe, Ga., former owners of Aluminum Extrusions, for canine research at the College of Veterinary Medicine.

Southwest Texas State U.: $1,200,000 bequest from the estate of Reed Brantley Parr of San Marcos, Tex., a retired schoolteacher and band director, for endowment and a scholarship in music.

U. of Florida: A horse farm and a house valued at $2,500,000 from Curtis M. Phillips of Jacksonville, Fla., a retired surgeon, to endow the Center for the Performing Arts.

U. of Michigan at Ann Arbor: $5,000,000 from Samuel Zell of Chicago, chairman of Equity Group Investments, and $5,000,000 from Ann Lurie, whose late husband, Robert H. Lurie, was a real-estate developer, to create the Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the business school; and $1,000,000 from Roy Wetzel of Ann Arbor, Mich., retired general manager of elections and polling at NBC News, and his wife, JoAn, to endow German-language research and acquisitions at the library and to endow the University Musical Society.

U. of Missouri at Columbia: $1,000,000 from Jack Bush of Dallas, former president of Michaels Stores and chairman of Jumbo Sports, and his wife, Mary, for international programs at the College of Business and Public Administration.

U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: $2,400,000 bequest from the estates of Charles Everett Brewer of Chapel Hill, a retired accountant, and his wife, Katherine, for endowment and a professorship in the pediatrics department at the School of Medicine, and $1,000,000 from William Burwell Harrison, Jr., of Greenwich, Conn., vice-chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank, and his wife, Anne, an interior designer, for the Kenan-Flagler Business School and for scholarships at the College of Arts and Sciences.