Colleges of Education and an Art Museum Receive Gifts; Other Donations

Several non-profit institutions have received big gifts.

* The philanthropist and art collector Audrey Jones Beck has donated 47 Impressionist and post-Impressionist paintings to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

The museum would not disclose the value of the artworks, but experts have estimated their worth to be $80-million or more.

The paintings, which include works by Cezanne, Degas, Monet, and Renoir, have been on display at the gallery since 1974 along with 23 other works previously donated to the museum by Mrs. Beck and her late husband, John. Cash estimates of the value of all 70 works have ranged from $150-million to $200-million.

* The University of Iowa, in Iowa City, has received a commitment of $30-million from alumnus Henry B. Tippie, a businessman and trucking tycoon, and his wife, Patricia, to endow the College of Business Administration.

The gift, which will be paid over an unspecified number of years, will be placed into an endowment; the income earned from it will support professorships and undergraduate scholarships.

Mr. Tippie, of Austin, Tex., is vice-chairman of Rollins Truck Leasing Corporation. He holds executive titles at seven other businesses and owns two ranches in Texas.

* The North Carolina School of the Arts, in Winston-Salem, has received a film and videotape archive worth approximately $25-million from Walter J. Klein of Charlotte, N.C., founder of the film-production company that bears his name.

The collection comprises some 1,000 commercials, documentaries, and short films made for corporations and other institutions over the past 50 years.

The collection’s monetary estimate comes from the company’s own records and represents what the materials cost to produce at the time, said Mr. Klein’s son Robert, who is president of the Walter J. Klein Company. There are no plans to bring in an independent assessor, he said.

* The University of Connecticut, in Storrs, has received $23-million from alumnus Raymond Neag, vice-chairman of the medical-products company Arrow International, in Reading, Pa.

Mr. Neag gave $21-million for the School of Education to endow both the Neag Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development, which was established in 1996 by Mr. Neag to explore ways to teach exceptional students, and the Five-Year Teacher Education Program. The donation will also finance professorships and scholarships in such areas as urban education and educational technology.

The gift is believed to be the largest ever made to an education school. The remainder of Mr. Neag’s gift will endow a professorship at the School of Medicine.

* A Mississippi lawyer and his wife have shouldered some of the weight of a friend’s commitment to the University of Mississippi, arranging a plan that will result in $30-million to Ole Miss.

David Nutt of Jackson, Miss., and his wife, Tracy, have agreed to pay $14.5-million over the next 14 years to endow liberal-arts programs. Their commitment revises a previous agreement between the university and Richard Scruggs, a lawyer in Pascagoula, Miss., and his wife, Diane.

Last year, the Scruggs family arranged to pay the university $1-million each year over the next 25 years (The Chronicle, September 10). The couple had already donated the first installment when the Nutts proposed splitting the gift down the middle, with each couple paying an equal amount, and shortening the time from 25 to 15 years.

Now, each couple will give slightly more than $1-million annually over the next 14 years. The newly named Scruggs/Nutt Endowment will support faculty salaries and other needs in the College of Liberal Arts.

* The investment adviser Peter S. Lynch and his wife, Carolyn, have given $10-million to endow the School of Education at Boston College, in Chestnut Hill, Mass.

The Lynches emphasized the need to train good teachers for primary and secondary schools, particularly those in inner-city neighborhoods.

Mr. Lynch is vice-chairman of Fidelity Management and Research Company, in Boston.

Other recent gifts:

Arlington Community Foundation (Va.): $1,000,000 bequest from the estate of Elizabeth S. Munnecke of Arlington, whose late husband, Charles, was a U.S. Army colonel and a lawyer who worked for the Judge Advocate General, for scholarships for graduates of Arlington County public high schools.

Chicago Shakespeare Theater: $1,000,000 from William Jentes of Chicago, a partner in the law firm Kirkland and Ellis, and his wife, Janet; $1,000,000 from Patrick Ryan of Chicago, chief executive officer of Aon Corporation, an insurance company, and his wife, Shirley, for the capital campaign; and $1,000,000 from Marilynn Thoma of Chicago and her husband, Carl, a partner in the investment firm Thoma Cressey.

City U. of New York Graduate School and U. Center: $1,200,000 bequest from the estate of Nelly Capelloni of New York, whose late husband, Mario, was an importer and exporter of pharmaceuticals, for fellowships in the humanities.

Duke U. (N.C.): $8,950,000 from John Mack of Rye, N.Y., president of Morgan Stanley, Dean Witter, Discover & Company, and his wife, Christy, for the capital campaign.

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical U. (Fla.): $1,000,000 from Roger Koch of Miami, former owner of Aircraft Modular Products, to endow scholarships for black students in engineering and computer science.

Sergei Fedorov Foundation (Mich.): $2,000,000 from Sergei Fedorov of Detroit, a member of the Detroit Red Wings professional hockey team, to establish this fund that will support Orchards Children’s Services, in Southfield, Mich., and other Detroit-area charities.

Kansas State U.: $2,400,000 bequest from the estate of Florence Harold Marcoux of Oberlin, Kan., a retired home-economics professor at Washburn U. of Topeka and widow of Dale Marcoux, a business professor at Washburn U., for scholarships for first-year students.

Lafayette College (Pa.): $1,000,000 from Arthur W. Conway and William J. Conway of Mahwah, N.J., brothers and co-chief executives of DialAmerica Marketing, to construct a dormitory for first-year students.

Minnesota Historical Society: $2,000,000 from Sage Cowles of Minneapolis and her husband, John, chairman of Cowles Media, to help construct a museum and educational center along the banks of the Mississippi River in Minneapolis.

National Humanities Center (N.C.): $1,000,000 from Assad Meymandi of Raleigh, N.C., a psychiatrist, to endow a fellowship in neuroscience.

Old Dominion U. (Va.): $5,000,000 from Theodore F. Constant of Virginia Beach, Va., former owner of Norfolk Beverage Company, and his wife, Constance, to help construct a new arena and other facilities as part of the “University Village” project.

Refugees International (D.C.): $1,000,000 from James Kimsey of Arlington, Va., founder and chairman emeritus of America Online, to increase its staff and to establish an emergency-response fund.

Rollins College (Fla.): $1,000,000 from Frank Barker of Lawrenceville, N.J., chief executive officer at U.S. Dermatologics, and his wife, Daryl, to construct a fitness center.

Rutgers U. (N.J.): $2,000,000 from Duncan MacMillan of Princeton, N.J., co- founder of Bloomberg Financial Markets, and his wife, Nancy, to endow a professorship in genetics in the Division of Life Sciences.

Spring Hill College (Ala.): $1,000,000 from Nan Hirschberg Altmayer of Mobile, Ala., wife of Jay P. Altmayer, a businessman, to endow a professorship in literature.

Texas A&M U.-Corpus Christi: $1,000,000 from Samuel Frech of Corpus Christi, a financial consultant, to help construct a performing-arts center.

Washburn U. of Topeka (Kan.): $1,900,000 bequest from the estate of Dale Marcoux of Topeka, Kan., a business professor at the university for 34 years, for scholarships for students at the School of Business.

Women’s Foundation (Cal.): $1,000,000 from an anonymous donor for its economic-justice program.

Yale U. Art Gallery (Conn.): $8,000,000 bequest from the estate of Simeon Braguin of Essex, Conn., a painter and illustrator, to acquire and display artworks by living U.S. artists.