Calif. University’s Engineering School Pledged $110-Million; Other Recent Gifts

Two institutions recently received large gifts and pledges:

• The University of California-San Diego’s School of Engineering has received a $110-million pledge from Irwin M. Jacobs, a former engineering professor at the university, and his wife, Joan. Mr. Jacobs is chairman and chief executive officer of Qualcomm, a wireless-communications company in San Diego.

  The couple pledged to give $10-million over the next five years to support faculty recruitment, fellowships, and scholarships. The remaining $100-million will be given after both have died, in the form of an irrevocable bequest and a charitable-remainder trust. Mr. and Mrs. Jacobs have earmarked that portion of the gift for the university’s endowment, faculty, fellowships, and scholarships.

• Phil Anschutz, founder of Qwest Communications International, in Denver, has established a charitable lead trust with 20 million shares of Qwest stock that are worth approximately $70-million. For the next three years, the trust will distribute 36 percent of its assets to the Anschutz Foundation, in Denver, which supports arts and culture and public-policy organizations. Any income or principal remaining in the trust at the end of three years will be given to Mr. Anschutz.

Other recent gifts:

Anne Arundel Medical Center Foundation (Annapolis, Md.): $3-million from JoAnn DeCesaris and her husband, Geaton, president of home-building operations and chief operating officer of Hovnanian Enterprises, in Red Bank, N.J., to support the cancer institute.

Davidson College (N.C.): $1-million pledge from Holmes Rolston III, an alumnus of the college who is a professor of philosophy at Colorado State U., in Fort Collins, and the winner of the 2003 Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries About Spiritual Realities, from the John Templeton Foundation, in Radnor, Pa. The gift will be used to establish a new professorship in religion and science. Mr. Rolston is donating the proceeds of the prize to the college.

Iowa State U. Foundation (Ames): $1-million from Nancy Campbell and her husband, Lyle, an alumnus and chairman of the Founders Group, in Worth, Ill., for capital improvements.

Near East Foundation (New York): $1-million unrestricted gift in the form of stock in Jacobs Engineering, in Pasadena, Calif., from the family trust of Violet Jabara Jacobs, to support the organization’s international-development programs in the Middle East and Africa.

Seattle Center Foundation: $1-million each from the Neukom family, of Seattle, and an anonymous donor, to construct a performing-arts center.

The Seeing Eye (Morristown, N.J.): $2-million from Jane H. Booker, through the charitable foundation established upon her death in 1994, to establish a chair in canine genetics at this organization that trains dogs to aid blind people.

Southwest Florida Community Foundation (Fort Myers): $1.1-million promised bequest from Dorothy Galleher and her husband, Ellis, of Fort Myers, for unrestricted use.

U. of California-San Diego (La Jolla): $5-million from Roberta Burnham, and her husband, Malin, chairman of the Burnham Companies, in San Diego, for the Management School.

U. of Cincinnati Foundation: $10.2-million from Richard E. Lindner, chairman and chief executive officer of REL Group, in Cincinnati, for athletic facilities; and $1-million from Frank R. Noyes, co-founder and president of Cincinnati Sportsmedicine & Orthopaedic Center, for the university’s department of biomedical engineering.

U. of Evansville (Ind.): Bequest of approximately $1-million from Edward F. Harrison, who was a retired research scientist at Mead Johnson, in Evansville, for scholarships.

U. of Rochester (N.Y.): $1-million from Janice M. Willett and her hus-band, Joseph, retired chief operating officer for Europe at the London office of Merrill Lynch & Company (New York), both alumni, to support faculty in the graduate school of business administration.

Weston Jesuit School of Theology (Cambridge, Mass.): $1-million pledge from John A. McNeice Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of the Colonial Group, in Greensboro, N.C., for endowment.