Cornell U. Begins Campaign to Meet $50-Million Challenge; Other Gifts

Donors have pledged large gifts to many non-profit organizations.

* An anonymous donor has promised $50-million to Cornell University’s campaign to endow scholarships if others contribute triple that amount.

The $200-million fund-raising drive was announced October 23 and has raised $70.2-million, excluding the pledge, to date. The university, in Ithaca, N.Y., seeks to raise the remainder of the $150-million necessary to garner the one-to-three match by December 1999. The donor made no restrictions as to who may contribute but stipulated that the money be earmarked exclusively for the scholarship campaign.

* The chairman of The Home Depot, Bernard Marcus, has given $45-million to the Kennedy Krieger Institute, in Baltimore, to build a treatment center in Atlanta for children with developmental and behavioral disabilities resulting from brain disorders.

The new center will be a collaboration between the Marcus Institute — an organization Mr. Marcus co-founded in Atlanta in 1990 to aid neurologically impaired children and their families — Emory University, in Atlanta, and the Kennedy Krieger Institute. All three institutions are planning to contribute resources and staff members to the new facility.

* James E. Rogers, president of Sunbelt Communications, in Las Vegas, Nev., has pledged $20-million to Idaho State University, in Pocatello, for unrestricted use. College officials said Mr. Rogers will pay out the gift over an undetermined number of years. The university has named its mass-communications program after Mr. Rogers, who owns eight television stations.

* Mississippi College, in Clinton, has received an unrestricted $20-million from an anonymous donor, bringing the total raised in its two-year capital campaign to $88-million. The gift propelled the college’s fund drive, begun in November 1996, past its $80-million goal.

* Converse College, in Spartanburg, S.C., will receive $15-million from George Dean Johnson, Jr., and his wife, Susan, if others give twice as much.

The college has until April 1999 to receive commitments totaling $30-million before it can claim the gift, the bulk of which the couple pledged toward constructing a technology building. The remainder of the Johnsons’ donation, as well as the challenge funds, will be used to finance other projects such as scholarships, new curricula, and endowment.

Mr. Johnson is president of Extended Stay America, which owns and manages lodgings for people who conduct out-of-town business.

* An anonymous donor has given $13-million to the Pratt Institute, in Brooklyn, N.Y., to build a dormitory. The facility, which is scheduled to open next September, will house 240 students and provide spaces in which to work on art and design projects.

* The University of Cambridge, in England, has received $12.5-million from Gordon Moore, chairman emeritus of the Intel Corporation, and his wife, Betty, to construct a physical-sciences and technology library.

The new library will consolidate science collections from across the campus. The facility will also house the Stephen Hawking Archive, which contains papers and electronic files of the noted physicist and author, who is a mathematics professor at Cambridge.

The Moores made a $35-million gift to Conservation International, in Washington, in early October.

* Alumni and other potential supporters of Illinois Wesleyan University, in Bloomington, can unlock $12-million in gifts for the institution if they meet the conditions set by the donors, B. Charles Ames and his wife, Joyce.

Mr. Ames, former chairman of Uniroyal Goodrich Tire Company, has promised to match, dollar for dollar up to $3-million, alumni contributions made during the next three years, provided that graduates give a total of at least $1-million each year. The couple will also match donations up to $9-million that are earmarked to construct the university’s new library. That challenge is also a dollar-for-dollar match and is open to any donor.

* Georgia State University, in Atlanta, has received a pledge of $10-million from J. Mack Robinson for scholarships, student fellowships, professorships, and research at the College of Business Administration. Mr. Robinson made his fortune as a financier and banker, and he is currently chairman of the insurance holding company Atlantic American Corporation.

* Wabash College, in Crawfordsville, Ind., has received $10-million from retired AT&T chairman Robert E. Allen and his wife, Betty, to help construct its new recreation center. The facility will bear the family’s name.

Other recent gifts:

California State U. at Chico: $1,400,000 bequest from the estate of Richard B. Dinsmore of Lodi, Cal., an electrician, for scholarships.

Canisius College (N.Y.): $3,000,000 from James F. Lyons of Simsbury, Conn., president of GenRad Inc., which makes electronic-systems testing equipment, and his wife, Judith, for the capital campaign.

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (Cal.): $5,000,000 from Maxine Dunitz of West Los Angeles, whose late husband, Gerald, was a real-estate developer, for the Neurological Institute.

Colby College (Me.): $2,500,000 from Harold Alfond of Waterville, Me., chairman of Dexter Shoe Company, and his wife, Dorothy, to construct a dormitory for college seniors.

Exploration Place (Kan.): $1,425,000 from Mary Lynn Beech Oliver of Wichita, Kan., daughter of Beech Aircraft founders Walter and Olive Ann Beech, and her family, to help construct this science center, children’s museum, and park that is scheduled to open in 2000.

Fisk U. (Tenn.): $1,600,000 bequest from the estate of H. Hampton Brewer of Birmingham, Ala., a physician, for endowment.

Hopkins School (Conn.): Up to $5,000,000 from John C. Malone of Englewood, Colo., chairman of Tele-Communications Inc., for endowment. Mr. Malone’s pledge is a dollar-for-dollar match of gifts to the school from now through June 2000.

Metropolitan Police Boys and Girls Clubs (D.C.): $1,000,000 from Richard England of Washington, chairman emeritus of the Hechinger Company, for the capital campaign.

Oregon State U.: $5,900,000 bequest from the estate of Edward N. Rickert, Jr., of Seaside, Ore., former president of Monarch Machine Company, for the College of Engineering.

The Seton Fund (Tex.): $1,000,000 from Mort Topfer of Austin, Tex., vice-chairman of Dell Computer Corporation, and his wife, Angela, to construct a community-health clinic in Austin.

St. Lawrence U. (N.Y.): $1,000,000 from George A. (Tony) Whaling of Chappaqua, N.Y., chairman of Kingston Capital Corporation, and his wife, Suzanne, for unrestricted use.

Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza (Cal.): $2,500,000 from Fred Kavli of Moorpark, Cal., chairman of Kavlico Corporation, which manufactures transducers and control systems for several industries; $1,500,000 from William D. Dallas of Sherwood, Cal., chairman of First Franklin Financial Corporation, and his wife, Beverly, an aerobics instructor; and $1,000,000 from Ray Scherr of Westlake Village, Cal., former owner of the Guitar Center retail chain, and his wife, Janet. All gifts are for the arts center’s fund-raising drive for endowment and operations.

Trevecca Nazarene U. (Tenn.): $4,000,000 from Don Waggoner of Greenville, S.C., and his wife, Zelma, former operators of a uniform-rental company, to renovate the library and to construct a technology building.

U. of Illinois: $2,000,000 from Dean E. Madden of Decatur, Ill., retired chairman of A. W. Cash Value Manufacturing Corporation, and his wife, Marilynn, for programs that integrate technology with the arts, humanities, and social sciences; $2,000,000 bequest from the estates of Wellington W. Scott of Winston-Salem, N.C., who founded Arwell Inc., a pest-control company, and his wife, Elizabeth, for scholarships at the Urbana-Champaign campus; and $1,500,000 from M. T. Geoffrey Yeh of Hong Kong, chairman of Hsin Chong Holdings, to endow a professorship in civil engineering.

U. of Oregon: $1,250,000 from Jonathan Marshall of Scottsdale, Ariz., former editor and publisher of the Scottsdale Progress, and his wife, Maxine, former editor of the newspaper’s weekly edition, to establish a professorship in First Amendment studies at the School of Journalism and Communication.

U. of St. Thomas (Tex.): $1,000,000 bequest from the estate of Otto Karnaky of Houston, founder of City Meat Company, for scholarships.

Williams Baptist College (Ark.): $1,000,000 from Larry Sloan of Walnut Ridge, Ark., for the capital campaign. Others must donate twice as much in order for the college to receive Mr. Sloan’s gift.