Community Foundation of the Ozarks and Missouri State U. Share $12 Million Bequest (Gifts Roundup)

A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:

Community Foundation of the Ozarks and Missouri State University

Linda Hale left roughly $12 million ($6 million apiece) to the two nonprofits primarily to back scholarships for students from Barton and Vernon Counties in Missouri, where she lived and worked.

Hale, who died in 2018, graduated from the university in 1971 with a degree in business. She and her late husband, Larry, ran a real-estate company and farmed and raised cattle.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Steve and Jackie Bell pledged $11 million to expand the undergraduate business program in the Kenan-Flagler Business School.

Steve Bell founded Bell Partners, a real-estate investment and management company in Greensboro, N.C. He grew up in Raleigh, N.C., and graduated from the university in 1967.

American Heart Association

William and Sarah (Sally) Soter gave $5.6 million to back cardiovascular research at the Go Red for Women Strategically Focused Research Center at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, and they gave $300,000 through their Soter Kay Foundation to the association’s hypertension- and diabetes-management programs in Palm Beach County, Fla., where the Soters have a home.

William Soter is a retired lawyer, investor, and writer. Sally Soter helped start the association’s Teaching Gardens program, an education program that teaches children about healthful eating habits. Her grandfather, Stanley Ross, co-founded the company that later became Ross Laboratories, now a division of Abbott Laboratories.

Fresno State University

Donald Gumz left nearly $4.7 million to support programs within the Jordan College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology. Of the total, $3.7 million will go toward renovations of the college’s research winery, and the remainder will be used to support the Center for Irrigation Technology.

Gumz was an investor and a retired accountant. His family has farmed wine grapes in the Fresno area since the early 1900s and today produces local wines at Engelmann Cellars and LoMac Winery.

Gumz, who died in 2018, attended annual wine-tasting events hosted by the Ag One Foundation at the Fresno State Winery, where he met many enology students over the years. University officials plan to name the enology building, which includes the research winery, for Gumz.

University of California at Irvine

John and Mary Tu gave $2.5 million through their John and Mary Tu Foundation to back Covid-19-associated patient care at UCI Health and to advance clinical and translational research focused on new ways to test for and treat the viral infection.

John Tu co-founded Kingston Technology, a Fountain Valley, Calif., computer company that develops and manufactures flash and other computer-memory-related products. He also co-founded Camintonn Corporation, a computer hardware company that was bought by AST Research.

University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing

Luci Baines Johnson and Ian Turpin donated $1 million for a variety of programs including efforts to improve health care for seniors, especially those affected by Covid-19; give scholarships for students pursuing a master’s degree with a focus on gerontology, and those who have been financially affected by Covid-19; and support unexpected needs related to the pandemic.

Baines Johnson, a daughter of the late U.S. President Lyndon Johnson, is chairman of LBJ Asset Management Partners, the Johnson family office, and chairman of BusinesSuites, a company she and Turpin founded in 1989 that provides executive office space. Turpin is a Canadian financier who serves as president of LBJ Asset Management Partners.

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