Business School Receives $30-Million; Other New Gifts

Two institutions have received big gifts:

• The University of California at Irvine has received $30-million from Paul Merage to endow professorships, increase scholarships and financial aid, and support faculty research at its Graduate School of Management. Mr. Merage, of Newport Beach, Calif., who immigrated to the United States from Iran when he was 16, is the inventor of Hot Pockets sandwiches and a founder of Chef America, which he sold to Nestle in 2002. He serves on the business school’s Board of Directors and on the board of the university’s foundation. The university plans to name the school after Mr. Merage.
• The University of Southern California, in Los Angeles, has received a $15-million pledge from Henrietta C. Lee to establish a women’s-health center at the university’s Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. The gift, which is to be paid over seven years, will also support research and the hiring of new faculty members. The center will focus on breast, ovarian, and other gynecological cancers. Ms. Lee and her late husband, Harold, ran dairy farms in Garden Grove, Calif., and later sold the land to development companies.

Other recent gifts:

Johns Hopkins U. (Baltimore): $2-million pledge from Susan Hetherington for unrestricted support for the Department of Population and Family Health Sciences at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. Ms. Hetherington, of Tucson, is a retired professor who taught at the U. of Maryland Graduate School of Nursing and School of Medicine. She earned a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins in 1965 and a Ph.D. in 1974.

National Jewish Medical and Research Center (Denver): $5-million pledge from Michael and Iris Smith to build a clinic and research facility. Mr. Smith is the chairman and chief executive officer of Freeport LNG Development, in Houston, and serves as a trustee of the research center.

Northwest Nazarene U. (Nampa, Idaho): $1-million from Monty and Anne Ortman to upgrade its facilities. Mr. Ortman, a 1971 graduate of the university, is a partner in El Dorado Holdings, a land acquisition and development company in Phoenix. Ms. Ortman also attended the university, as did her daughter.

Northwestern U. (Evanston, Ill.): $1-million from Bob Barker, the game-show host, to endow a fund at its law school that will focus on the study of animal-rights law. Mr. Barker lives in Hollywood Hills, Calif.

NRA Foundation (Fairfax, Va.): $1-million bequest from Andrew Burns, of Wysox, Pa., for endowment. Mr. Burns, who died in 2004, was an engineer by training and owned a motel and a historic inn.

Rochester General Hospital (N.Y.): $9-million from B. Thomas Golisano to establish a cardiothoracic intensive-care unit, a vascular laboratory, and an emergency center at the hospital. Mr. Golisano is the founder and retired chief executive officer of Paychex, a payroll-processing company in Rochester.

Tulane U. (New Orleans): More than $1-million from Jim Clark to support the directorship of the Theodore Roosevelt Center for American Civilization. Mr. Clark, the co-founder of Netscape, in Mountain View, Calif., attended Tulane and serves on its board. Tulane also received more than $1-million from Sy Rosenwasser, of Los Angeles, for scholarships for students attending the School of Medicine. Dr. Rosenwasser is a retired urologist who graduated from the university in 1946 and from the medical school in 1950.

U. of Central Florida (Orlando): $2-million pledge from John and Carrie Morgridge, of Orlando, for a national reading center that will be named for them. The money is scheduled to be paid over four years; half will help pay for a new building, while the other half will endow the center. Mr. Morgridge is a real-estate developer, and Ms. Morgridge is an interior designer.

U. of Florida (Gainesville): $1.5-million pledge from John and Mary Lou Dasburg to endow a professorship at the Levin College of Law. Mr. Dasburg, the chief executive officer and co-owner of Astar Air Cargo, in Miami, is vice chair of the Florida Board of Governors. He graduated from the university in 1960 with a degree in engineering and received a law degree from it in 1973. Ms. Dasburg also received a law degree from the university.