Carleton College and Carnegie Mellon U. Each Land $50 Million: Gifts Roundup

A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:

Carleton College

Wallace and Barbara Veach Weitz and their family committed $50 million for the college’s capital campaign, which aims to raise a total of $400 million to boost financial aid, build new spaces for science and music programs, support faculty research, and back internships and other experiential-learning programs.

Wallace Weitz founded Weitz Investments. He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Carleton in 1970 and serves as chairman of the university’s Board of Trustees.

Barbara Veach Weitz retired as a faculty member of the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s School of Social Work. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Carleton in 1970.

Carnegie Mellon University

Tod and Cindy Johnson pledged $50 million to establish the Johnson Family Scholarship Endowment, which will support undergraduate scholarships and programs aimed at helping scholarship students reach graduation.

Tod Johnson is executive chairman of the NPD Group, an international market-research firm that he has led for more than 45 years. He serves as vice chair of the university’s Board of Trustees.

Cindy and Tod Johnson met and married while they were both students at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, which became Carnegie Mellon University. Tod Johnson earned a bachelor’s degree in graphic-arts management in 1966 and a master’s degree in industrial administration in 1967, and Cindy Johnson earned a bachelor’s degree in art in 1968.

North Carolina State University

Frederick Eugene Wilson Jr. and his family donated $28 million to endow the College of Textiles, which will be named the Wilson College of Textiles.

Wilson is chairman of Piedmont Chemical Industries, a manufacturer of textile chemicals that was founded by his father in 1938. Wilson graduated from the college in 1961 with a degree in textile chemistry.

His family has a long association with the university. Wilson’s son, Frederick Eugene Wilson III, and his daughter, Elizabeth Wilson Calabrese, graduated with degrees in textile chemistry in 1987 and 1989, respectively; and his grandson, Frederick Wilson IV earned a degree in polymer and color chemistry in 2016.

University of California at Los Angeles, David Geffen School of Medicine

Steven and Laurie Gordon gave $25 million through their Steven Gordon Family Foundation to establish an endowed fund called the Laurie and Steven Gordon Commitment to Cure Parkinson’s Disease.

The money will back research, endow five professorships, and support a new lab with PET-scan and MRI technology to examine the mechanisms of the disease.

Steven Gordon is chairman and a principal owner of Domino Realty, and Laurie Gordon is a former lawyer for United Artists Communications and former vice president of Warner Bros. International Theatres.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Don and Barbara Curtis donated nearly $21.3 million through their Curtis Foundation for journalism and other programs. The largest portion of the gift, $10 million, will go to the School of Media and Journalism.

Of that, $8 million will be used to build a new media center to house programs aimed at helping students excel in a rapidly changing industry, and $2 million will expand an existing fund for internships and support other programs. In addition, $3 million will support the School of Medicine and UNC Hospitals, and another $3 million will go to the athletics department. The remaining $5.3 million will go toward other university programs.

Don Curtis is chairman and chief executive of the Curtis Media Group and graduated from the university in 1963.

Seattle Children’s Hospital

Steve and Connie Ballmer gave $20 million through their Ballmer Group to the Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic, a primary-care center that provides medical, dental, mental-health, and nutrition services to all families, regardless of their ability to pay.

Steve Ballmer is a retired chief executive of Microsoft and owns the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team. The Ballmers are prolific donors who appeared on the Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50 listing of the biggest donors for gifts they gave in 2014.

University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center

W.G. Champion and Etteinne Mitchell donated $10 million to create a new fund supporting blood-cancer research, including lymphoma, leukemia, and myeloma research.

Champion Mitchell is a retired lawyer and business executive whose career included serving as chief executive of Network Solutions, an IT services-management company. He earned undergraduate and law degrees from UNC Chapel Hill. He was treated for stage four non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma at North Carolina Cancer Hospital, a Lineberger facility.

Etteinne Mitchell is a retired military intelligence officer who specialized in crisis support in the National Military Command Center and the Navy Command Center, as well as in counterespionage, covert-collection operations, and drug-interception related activities.

Hudson Institute

Ravenel Curry III gave $3 million to create and endow the Ravenel B. Curry III Chair, post with a five-year term.

Curry co-founded Eagle Capital Management, an investment firm, with his wife, Elizabeth Curry, who died in 2015. He currently serves as managing director and chief investment officer. Previously, he was a portfolio manager at the Duke Endowment.

Stony Brook University

Frances Brisbane pledged $1 million to establish the Owens-Brisbane Wellbeing and Educational Advancement Endowment for Health Sciences Custodial Staff.

Brisbane retired as dean of the university’s School of Social Welfare in 2014 and now serves as Stony Brook’s vice president for Health Sciences Workforce Diversity. She named the endowment for Elsie Owens, a custodian Brisbane met almost 50 years ago on the day she came to interview for a university post. Owens pulled Brisbane aside and gave her some interview advice and tips about how the social-welfare school worked.

The two women became friends and years later Brisbane helped Owens — a prominent local activist whose interest in Brisbane’s interview was part of her advocacy for black faculty and staff at the university — earn bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Owens died at age 77 in 2005.

To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated throughout the week.