Center for Brain Study Gets $25-Million; Other Gifts

Several organizations have received big gifts.

• Bruce McCaw, a founder of McCaw Cellular Communications, and his wife, Jolene, have given $25-million to help establish a center in Seattle to study infant and early-childhood brain development.

  Scientists at the Talaris Research Institute will seek a better understanding of how young minds work and how early stages of learning can be improved. Plans call for the institute to operate a laboratory school to examine learning techniques for children up to 5 years old.

  The couple made the gift to cover the operating expenses of the institute. Officials estimate the total start-up costs of the project, including the McCaws’ donation, to be $91-million over five years.

  Mr. McCaw and his three brothers became billionaires when AT&T bought their company in 1994.

  This corrects an item that appeared previously on this site, as well as in the August 10 print issue.

• Gerhard R. Andlinger, a financier, has given $25-million to Princeton University’s recently concluded capital campaign.

  Mr. Andlinger is chairman of the leveraged-buyout firm Andlinger & Company, in Tarrytown, N.Y. He came to the United States from his native Austria in 1948 after winning an essay contest sponsored by the New York Herald Tribune; he graduated from Princeton four years later.

  The university’s campaign, which sought $900-million, ended June 30 and raised $1.14-billion.

• The Greater Cincinnati Foundation has received two trusts with a combined value of $13.2-million from Richard H. Durrell, a geology professor at the University of Cincinnati who died in 1994, and his wife, Lucile, who died in 1998.

  The couple’s bequests established an endowment at the foundation to support 14 organizations in perpetuity. The Cincinnati Museum of Natural History’s Edge of Appalachia Preserve System, the Cincinnati Nature Center, and the Ohio and Kentucky chapters of the Nature Conservancy will receive the highest percentage of payouts from the trusts.

• Park B. Smith, an importer of home-fashion products, and his wife, Carol, have donated $10-million to College of the Holy Cross, in Worcester, Mass., to build a facility that will house several academic departments and student services.

  Mr. Smith graduated from the college in 1954. His namesake company, in New York, distributes “eco-friendly” goods such as vegetable-dyed bedding and rugs.

• Mike A. Leprino, a Denver businessman, has given $10-million to the University of Colorado to help build a hospital at its new campus in Aurora.

  Mr. Leprino owns Covenant Mortgage Company and is a board member at his family’s business, Leprino Foods, which is the world’s largest maker of mozzarella cheese.

Other recent gifts:

Canisius College (N.Y.):

$1,000,000 from Paul J. Strassberger of Palo Alto, Calif., an investor and entrepreneur, for the capital campaign.

Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts: Bequests totaling $2,400,000 from the estates of Agnes K. O’Donnell and Margaret E. O’Donnell of Northampton, Mass., sisters and schoolteachers, for endowment.

Goucher College (Md.): $6,080,000 bequest from the estate of Charlotte Killmon Wright Brown of San Antonio, an investor, for scholarships.

Parrish Art Museum (N.Y.): $3,000,000 from Carroll Petrie of New York to purchase Rogers Memorial Library, which is adjacent to the museum, and turn it into an art-education facility.

Rollins College (Fla.): $1,000,000 from Richard Sorenson of Stuart, Fla., president of Carlingswitch, and his wife, Sandi, to endow a professorship in the expressive arts.

U. of California at Irvine: $6,000,000 from John V. Croul of Santa Ana, Calif., co-chairman of Behr Process Corp., to help construct a research center at the Department of Earth System Sciences.

Wayne State U. (Mich.): $2,800,000 bequest from the estate of Raymond L. Krell of West Bloomfield, Mich., a lawyer and a police instructor, to endow scholarships at the Law School.

Western Kentucky U.: $1,100,000 from Lowell Guthrie of Bowling Green, Ky., president and chief executive officer of Trace Die Cast, for scholarships and a courtyard plaza.