California University to Receive $60-Million; Other New Gifts

Six organizations have received big gifts:

• California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo has announced that it has been promised a $60-million unrestricted bequest from an anonymous donor to support the architecture department. The donor, who was an architecture major at the university, did not then have enough money to complete his degree. He went on to become an entrepreneur. The architecture department and College of Architecture and Environmental Design are developing a plan for how to use the money.
• Duke University, in Durham, N.C., has received a pledge of $35-million from David H. Murdock, owner and chairman of Dole Food Company, in Westlake Village, Calif., and Castle & Cooke, a real-estate development company in Los Angeles. Mr. Murdock has earmarked his gift for a biomedical-research project at the North Carolina Research Campus, in Kannapolis, that will study how to match medical treatment to a patient’s genetic profile.
• A. Alfred Taubman, founder of Taubman Centers, a mall- and retail-design company in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., has given $22-million to the University of Michigan Health System, in Ann Arbor, to endow a new research institute at the University of Michigan Medical School. The gift includes research grants of $600,000 each over three years for five scholars. In June, Mr. Taubman donated $5-million to the health system to support the research of Eva Feldman on Lou Gehrig’s disease.
• The University of Notre Dame, in Indiana, has received $15-million from an anonymous donor to help build a new ice arena for the institution’s hockey team.
• Marlborough School, a private all-girls high school in Los Angeles, has received $13.5-million from Charles T. Munger, vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, an investment company in Omaha, and his wife, Nancy, for its capital campaign to add facilities and strengthen its operations. Ms. Munger graduated from the school in 1941, and formerly served as president of its Board of Trustees. Mr. Munger also founded Munger, Tolles & Olson, a law firm in Los Angeles.
• The Rochester Institute of Technology, in New York, has received a pledge of $10-million from B. Thomas Golisano, founder and chairman of Paychex Inc., a Rochester company that provides businesses with benefits, human-resources, and payroll services. Mr. Golisano has earmarked his gift to help the university establish its Institute for Sustainability, which will develop ways to make more ecologically friendly products, and will offer related academic programs, including a doctorate in sustainability. Mr. Golisano donated $14-million in 2001 to create the College of Computing and Information Sciences.

Other recent gifts:

Baltimore Museum of Art: $5-million from an anonymous donor to endow the position of museum director, in honor of the 10th anniversary of the appointment of Doreen Bolger to that position.

Elon U. (N.C.): $1-million bequest from the estate of William A. Graham, a former professional baseball player and businessman who lived in Flemingsburg, Ky. The gift will endow scholarships for student athletes and academically talented students. Mr. Graham, who graduated from the university in 1962 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, died last year at the age of 69.

Hebrew SeniorLife (Boston): $2-million from Steve Weiner, founder of S.R. Weiner & Associates, a commercial real-estate development company in Chestnut Hill, Mass., and his wife, Roberta, to support its capital campaign.

Louisiana State U. (Baton Rouge): $4.7-million from Charles Barney, owner of Mark I Enterprises, an oil, gas, and real-estate investment company in Houston, to endow the university’s Geology Field Camp Program. Mr. Barney graduated from Louisiana State in 1949 with a bachelor’s degree in engineering.

Minnesota State U. at Mankato: $7.5-million pledge from Lowell Andreas, retired president of Archer Daniels Midland Company, an agricultural-processing company in Decatur, Ill., and his son David, retired chief executive officer of National City Bancorporation, a banking company in Minneapolis, and David’s wife, Debbie. The donors, who made this gift in memory of Nadine Andreas, Lowell’s late wife and David’s mother, have earmarked the gift to support the College of Arts & Humanities. David Andreas graduated from the university in 1976 with a master’s degree in sociology. The elder Mr. Andreas has previously supported the university’s theater and observatory with his late wife, who died in 2005 at the age of 82.

Morgan State U. (Baltimore): $1-million from Calvin E. Tyler Jr., retired senior vice president of operations at UPS, the shipping company based in Atlanta, and his wife, Tina, to endow scholarships for needy students. Mr. Tyler studied business administration at the university for two years before leaving to work for UPS. He and his wife have previously donated $1-million to Morgan State U. to endow scholarships.

Music Center and Mansion at Strathmore (North Bethesda, Md.): $1-million from H. Jeffrey Leonard, founding partner and chief executive officer of Global Environment Fund, an investment-management firm in Washington, and his wife, Carolyn, a clinical psychologist at the Montgomery County Head Start Program, in Rockville, Md., to endow arts education and programs for low-income visitors.

North Carolina Central U. (Durham): $1-million pledge from George R. Hamilton, president of Dow Coatings, a division of the Dow Chemical Company, in Midland, Mich., and his wife, Jill, to endow operations and scholarships at the School of Business and in the Department of Athletics. Mr. Hamilton graduated in 1977 with a bachelor’s degree in business.

Saint Joseph’s Hospital (Atlanta): $5-million pledge from William B. Erb, co-founder of ERB Industries, a protective-equipment and apparel manufacturer in Woodstock, Ga., to create the Florence Hays Erb Cancer Center, in honor of Mr. Erb’s late wife. The gift will support lung-cancer research, community-education and patient programs, cancer screenings for poor patients, and the recruitment of oncologists to the hospital.

Saint Mary’s U. of Minnesota, Schools of Graduate and Professional Programs (Winona): $2-million from an anonymous donor to endow scholarships for nontraditional students who are completing their bachelor’s or graduate degrees, and to support a speaker series at the university.

South Shore Hospital (Weymouth, Mass.): $2.3-million from Francis X. Messina, founder of F.X. Messina Enterprises, a real-estate investment, development, and management company in Braintree, Mass., for its capital campaign. In 2000, Mr. Messina gave $2-million for the emergency, maternity, and surgical departments, and he has also previously supported the hospice and pediatric-emergency departments.

U. of Colorado at Boulder: $1-million from Jane Butcher, who with her late husband, Charlie, sold their cleaning-products company to S.C. Johnson Company, in Racine, Wis., to support interdisciplinary research in molecular biotechnology. Including this gift, Ms. Butcher and her late husband have given a total of $2.6-million to support biotechnology research at the university.

U. of Northern Iowa (Cedar Falls): $3-million pledge from Richard O. Jacobson, founder and chairman of Jacobson Companies, a warehouse- and freight-services corporation in Des Moines, to help build a multipurpose center for both academic and athletic programs.

U. of Tennessee (Knoxville): $1-million pledge from Phillip Fulmer, the university’s head football coach, and his wife, Vicky, to support scholarships, athletic facilities, and academic and athletic programs. Mr. Fulmer graduated from the university in 1972 with a bachelor’s degree in history.

To submit announcements of donations from individuals of $1-million or more, please send an e-mail message to gifts@philanthropy.com.