CEO Pledges $30-Million to Museum; Other Gifts

Two organizations have recently received large commitments:

• The Royal Ontario Museum, in Toronto, has received an unrestricted pledge of $30-million from Michael Lee-Chin, chief executive officer of AIC Limited, in Burlington, Ontario. The gift will be used for capital improvements and to expand the museum, which focuses on natural history and the development of human cultures.
• Fresh Start Surgical Gifts, in Encinitas, Calif., has received a bequest of $18.2-million from Jeanne Cox Brady, whose late husband, William, co-founded Corn Products Refining Company, now Unilever Best Foods North America, in Englewood Cliffs, N.J. The gift will help Fresh Start expand its programs, which provide free reconstructive surgery primarily to needy children with physical deformities caused by abuse, accidents, birth defects, or disease. Mrs. Brady died in November 2001.

Other recent gifts:

Buckingham Browne & Nichols School (Cambridge, Mass.): $10-million challenge gift from an anonymous donor for endowment and capital improvements at this coeducational day school.

Community Foundation of Waterloo, Cedar Falls, and Northeast Iowa (Waterloo): $3-million bequest from Georgia Easton, an interior designer who died in January. Her late husband, James, had been an investor and a member of the Board of Directors of the Waterloo Savings Bank. The gift will create a fund for art and cultural programs, historic preservation, and health programs for children and adults.

Emerson College (Boston): $2-million from Joan Benard-Cutler and her husband, Ted, an alumnus of the college and president of the GWV division of the Interface Group, in Needham, Mass., to renovate a landmark theater built in 1903.

Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America (New York): $1-million from Seena Elfant and her husband, Jack, a retired optometrist, of Walnut Creek, Calif., to support the Hadassah College of Technology, in Jerusalem.

Kansas State U. Foundation (Manhattan): $1.1-million bequest from Francis Aicher Lewis, an alumna and former trustee of the foundation and a partner at Alfalfa Lawn Farms, a purebred-Hereford business in Larned, Kan., to establish a chair in animal sciences and industry and an endowment for animal research and education.

Minnesota Medical Foundation (Minneapolis): $1.9-million through a charitable annuity from Laurence O. Pilgeram, of Santa Barbara, Calif., to endow a chair in the molecular biology of aging; and $1-million from Janet Chorzempa and her husband, Martin, former president and chief executive officer of the Richfield Bank and Trust Company, of Bloomington, Minn., to support a cancer-therapies program at the U. of Minnesota Cancer Center, in Minneapolis.

Museum of Arts and Design (New York): Two gifts totaling $22-million to construct a new building for the museum, which was formerly known as the American Craft Museum. Simona Chazen, and her husband, Jerome, chairman emeritus of the museum’s board and founder of Chazen Capital Partners, in New York, have given $12-million. Nanette Laitman, president of the museum’s board and managing director of the William and Mildred Lasdon Foundation, in New York, has given $10-million.

New School U., Parsons School of Design (New York): $7-million from Sheila C. Johnson, a member of the Board of Governors and co-founder of Black Entertainment Television, in Washington, to create a new design center.

Oklahoma City U.: $1-million from Ann Lacy, a stock-market investor whose husband, James Alexander, is dean emeritus of the business school, for capital improvements.

Pennsylvania State U. (State College): $10-million from H. Campbell Stuckeman, an alumnus of the university and retired president of the Precise Corporation, in Racine, Wis., and his late wife, Eleanor, for capital improvements to the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture.

Saint Michael’s College (Colchester, Vt.): $5-million pledge from an anonymous alumnus to construct a new library.

Scripps College (Claremont, Calif.): $1.8-million bequest from Dorothy Cruickshank Banckstrand, an alumna, to endow a chair in gender and women’s studies.

Spring Hill College (Mobile, Ala.): $4.5-million, in the form of a $3-million gift and a $1.5-million pledge, from Albert P. Viragh, an alumnus of the college and founder of the Rydex Fund Group, in Rockville, Md., for capital improvements.

U. of Utah (Salt Lake City): Adobe stock valued at $5.7-million from Marva Warnock and her husband, John, co-founder and co-chairman of the board of Adobe Systems (San Jose, Calif.), to construct a new building for the College of Engineering.

U. of Virginia College Foundation (Charlottesville): $8.5-million pledge from Bobbie Nau and her husband, John L. Nau III, an alumnus of the university and president and chief executive officer of Silver Eagle Distributors (Houston), to construct a new building for the department of history.

Wagner College (Staten Island, N.Y.): $7.9-million from an anonymous donor to endow a chair in the sciences and to support academic programs. (This corrects an item that appeared in the March 6 issue.)

Wichita State U. (Kan.): $1.1-million from Rose Marcus and her husband, Howard, chief executive officer of the Marcus Food Company, in Wichita, to construct a welcome center for prospective students that will also serve as a meeting place for alumni and others.