Buffett Pledges $50-Million to Curb Nuclear Facilities; Other New Gifts

Thirteen institutions have received big gifts:

• Warren E. Buffett, chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway, in Omaha, pledged $50- million to the Nuclear Threat Initiative, in Washington. The money is earmarked for the International Atomic Energy Agency, which will create an international nuclear-fuel reserve to provide uranium for energy use to countries that agree not to build nuclear facilities of their own. Mr. Buffett said he would only fulfill the pledge if $100-million for that purpose is provided by governments around the world over the next two years.

• Opportunity International, a group that provides small loans to needy people and organizations in 28 developing countries, received a pledge of $50-million from John Weberg, the former owner of Weberg Furniture, in Bloomington, Ind., and his wife, Jacque. The Webergs will advise the organization on how they want the money spent.

• Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, in New York, received a bequest of $44-million from the estate of the fashion designer Geoffrey Beene. The money will establish a cancer-research center that will focus on translational medicine. Mr. Beene died from cancer in 2004 at age 77.

• The San Francisco Opera received an unrestricted pledge of $35-million from Jeannik Méquet Littlefield, wife of the late Edmund Wattis Littlefield, whose company, Utah Construction, merged with General Electric in 1976. The opera will use $10-million for general operating expenses, and the remaining $25-million will add to the endowment.

• Columbia University, in New York, received two unrestricted bequests totaling $29.2-million: $15-million from Wun Tsun Tam, a school administrator in Hong Kong, and $14.2-million from her brother, Robert Yik-Fong Tam, founder of Robert YF Tam Enterprises, a foreign-investment firm in Hong Kong. Part of the money will establish a professorship in Chinese business and economy. The bequests will also support the university’s East Asian Library and endow other professorships. Mr. Tam, who died in March 2004 at the age of 103, graduated from Columbia Business School in 1950. Ms. Tam died in October 2004.

• Claremont McKenna College, in California, received a pledge of $20-million from George R. Roberts, a founding partner of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company, an international private-equity firm in New York, and his family, to match contributions to endow professorships. Mr. Roberts graduated from the college in 1966 with a bachelor’s degree in economics.

• Occidental College, in Los Angeles, received an $11-million bequest from the estate of John Parke Young, a retired chief of the International Finance Section of the U.S. Department of State, in Washington, and his wife, Marie Smith Young, to endow a professorship in international economy. Mr. Young graduated from the college in 1917 with a bachelor’s degree in economics, and taught there until 1942. He died in 1988 at the age of 93. Ms. Young died in August at age 89.

• Miami University, in Oxford, Ohio, received a $10.5-million pledge from Roger Howe, a retired chief executive officer of U.S. Precision Lens, in Cincinnati, and his wife, Joyce, to support an effort to improve and enhance the institution’s writing programs. A new writing center will be located in the library to help undergraduate students with their writing skills, and faculty members will receive training and support to teach writing as part of their courses and to assign more written projects. The Howes both graduated from the university in 1957, Mr. Howe with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, and Ms. Howe with a bachelor’s degree in the fine arts.

• The Columbus Museum of Art, in Ohio, received a $10- million gift from Robert D. and Margaret M. Walter, to support educational programs and exhibitions. Mr. Walter is founder and chairman of Cardinal Health, a health-care services and product provider, in Dublin, Ohio, and Ms. Walter serves on the Board of Trustees.

• Ohio Northern University, in Ada, has received a pledge of $10-million from MaryAnn Mathile, a former co-owner of Iams, a pet-foods company based in Dayton, Ohio, and her husband, Clayton, a retired president of the company, to build science-education and research facilities. Mr. Mathile graduated from the university in 1962 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration.

• Henry T. Segerstrom, a managing partner of C.J. Segerstrom and Sons, a commercial real-estate development company in Costa Mesa, Calif., and his wife, Elizabeth, gave $10-million to the Orange County Performing Arts Center, in Costa Mesa, for its capital campaign to expand its concert hall. Mr. Segerstrom, who gave $40-million in 2000 with his late wife, Renée, was the founding chairman of the center’s Board of Directors.

• Scripps Health, in San Diego, received $10-million from Conrad T. Prebys, president of Progress Construction and Management, in San Diego, to support the emergency and trauma department at Scripps Mercy Hospital. The gift will also help build a new critical-care facility, nearly doubling the size of the original emergency department and trauma center.

• The University of Notre Dame, in Indiana, received a $10-million pledge from John W. Glynn, founder and president of Glynn Capital Management, in Menlo Park, Calif., and his wife, Barbara, to support and enhance a joint honors program between the university’s College of Arts and Letters and the College of Science. Mr. Glynn graduated from the university in 1962 with a bachelor’s degree in history. Two of the Glynns’ children, David and Elizabeth, also graduated from the university.

Other recent gifts:

Augusta State U. (Ga.): $2-million from James M. Hull, owner of Hull Storey Retail Group, a commercial real-estate development and management company in Augusta, to support the university’s College of Business Administration.

Concordia U. (Irvine, Calif.): $3-million pledge from Kari Grimm, wife of the late Robert A. Grimm, who was a co-owner of Grimmway Farms, in Bakersfield, Calif., to help build the new Education, Business and Technology Center.

East Bay Community Foundation (Oakland, Calif.): $2.7-million bequest from the estate of Melvin Lee Makower, an orthopedic surgeon in Berkeley, Calif., for its endowment. Mr. Makower died in 1996 at the age of 81.

Friends U. (Wichita, Kan.): $2-million from anonymous donors to endow ballet and jazz scholarships and establish a series of jazz performances, and for improvements to the Alexander Auditorium.

Georgetown U. (Washington): $1.2-million from Markos Kounalakis, publisher of The Washington Monthly, and his wife, Eleni Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis, president of AKT Development, a land-development company in Sacramento, to establish a professorship in Hellenic studies.

High Point U. (N.C.): $3-million from an anonymous alumnus, for capital projects on campus.

Midland College (Tex.): $3-million bequest from Todd Aaron, former owner of the Aaron Cable Tool Drilling Company, in Midland. This unrestricted gift will add to the endowment. His wife, Dorothy, a private investor who died in 1998, attended the college from 1974 to 1976. Mr. Aaron died in February at the age of 94.

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center (New York): $4-million from Jill Roberts to establish a center for research on and treatment of inflammatory bowel disease.

South Jersey Technology Park at Rowan U. (Mantua Township, N.J.): $1-million from Samuel H. Jones, owner and president of S-J Venture Capital Company, in Woodstown, N.J., to construct the campus’s first building, which will house laboratories and office space. The technology park will offer research and office facilities for companies, entrepreneurs, inventors, professors, researchers, and students.

Trevecca Nazarene U. (Nashville): $2-million from an anonymous donor to renovate a building in order to create classroom space for the School of Business.

U. of Virginia (Charlottesville): $1-million from Tiki and Ronde Barber, brothers who both graduated from the university in 1997, and their families. Half of the gift will support the McIntire School of Commerce, the Virginia Athletics Foundation, the university’s Children’s Hospital, a scholarship fund for African-American students, and the Young Alumni Council. The remaining $500,000 will be used to challenge young alumni to participate in the capital campaign. Ronde Barber, who received a bachelor’s degree in marketing, plays cornerback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers football team, and Tiki, who received his bachelor’s degree in information technology, is a running back for the New York Giants football team.

U. of Washington Business School (Seattle): $1.5-million from Robert J. Herbold, managing director of Herbold Group, a consulting firm in Bellevue, Wash. Of the gift, $500,000 will endow a professorship in entrepreneurship, and the remaining $1-million will build a “venture creation” laboratory, where students can develop and analyze business plans.

Washburn U. (Topeka, Kan.): $2-million from Ronald K. Washburn, a retired chief executive officer of Torchmark, in Birmingham, Ala., and his wife, Florence, for scholarships and future campus projects. The Washburns both received bachelor’s degrees at the university in 1949, and Mr. Washburn graduated from the law school there in 1951.

— Anne W. Howard