Couple Create $100-Million Foundation; Other Gifts

An Austin, Tex., couple have pledged $100-million to help people in Africa, the United Kingdom, and Texas.

Phillip R. Berber, founder of the online brokerage CyBerCorp.com, and his wife, Donna, have established A Glimmer of Hope, a foundation in Austin that initially will focus on improving the lives of children and women in Ethiopia.

The pledge is intended to cover all operating costs of the foundation, so that 100 percent of donations from other sources will go directly to beneficiaries.

The organization’s first grants have supported the construction of schools, an adoption program, and new water wells in Ethiopia.

In a letter announcing the pledge, Mr. Berber said that A Glimmer of Hope intends to open a U.K. office and that the foundation hopes to make grants in Austin as well.

Mr. Berber sold CyBerCorp.com to Charles Schwab in March for $488-million.

Several other non-profit groups received multimillion-dollar gifts:

• C.T. (Ted) Bauer, chairman of AIM Management Group, has given $40-million to the University of Houston for its College of Business.

  Mr. Bauer made the gift to finance professorships, faculty fellowships, technology, and other programs.

  The university has renamed the college in his honor.

• Henry T. Segerstrom, a Southern California real-estate developer, has given $40-million to the Orange County Performing Arts Center, in Costa Mesa, to construct a concert hall.

  The total cost of the project is expected to be $200-million. Mr. Segerstrom is managing co-partner of C.J. Segerstrom & Sons, in Costa Mesa.

• An anonymous donor has given $20-million to Oregon State University, in Corvallis, for its campaign for the College of Engineering. The university is seeking $120-million for professorships, scholarships, capital needs, and research. It has raised $45-million to date.
• The family of the late Zollie Frank of Chicago has pledged $10-million to the University of Chicago Medical Center to provide scholarships to students in the M.D./Ph.D. joint-degree program.

  Mr. Frank, who died in 1984, founded the holding company Frank Enterprises. His wife, Elaine Frank, and their son, Jim, are chairman and president of the company, respectively.

Other recent gifts:

American Jewish Committee (N.Y.):

$2,000,000 from Robert and Harriet Heilbrunn of New York to create an endowment for humanitarian relief.

Archaeological Conservancy (N.M.): $1,000,000 from Jay Last of Los Angeles, former vice president for technology at Teledyne, for the “Protect Our Irreplaceable National Treasures” program.

HarborUCLA Research and Education Institute (Calif.): $1,000,000 from Alvin Grancell of Mesa, Ariz., vice president of Pulmonary Education and Research Foundation and a former real-estate broker, to establish a research position in pulmonary disease.

Johns Hopkins U. (Md.): $3,000,000 from Margaret Mosher of Santa Barbara, Calif., widow of Samuel B. Mosher, founder of Signal Oil and Gas Company of Los Angeles, to create a center for corneal-disease research at the Wilmer Eye Institute.

Missouri Repertory Theatre: $2,500,000 from Jeannette Nichols of Kansas City, Mo., and her husband, Miller, whose father, J.C. Nichols, was a Kansas City real-estate developer, to endow a production every season.

National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws Foundation (D.C.): $1,000,000 from an anonymous donor for a national public-information campaign.

Northwest Arkansas Community College: $2,100,000 from Willard Walker of Springdale, Ark., a former executive at Wal-Mart, and his wife, Pat, for additions to the science and allied-health laboratories, and to expand the law-enforcement program.

Ohio State U.: $1,000,000 from Donald A. Borror of Columbus, Ohio, founder of Dominion Homes, and his family, to build a facility for the Department of Athletics.

U. of Chicago: $1,500,000 from Gary Hoover of Austin, Tex., founder of the business directory Hoover’s Inc., to construct a dormitory and to create a center for European studies.

U. of Dayton (Ohio): $1,000,000 from the family of the late columnist Erma Bombeck of Fairfield, Conn., to establish an early-childhood learning center.

U. of Louisville (Ky.): $1,494,162 bequest from the estate of Wilma Wise Nelson of Shoreline, Wash., for unrestricted use.

U. of Wyoming: $2,000,000 from an anonymous donor for a trust fund and to establish the Alan K. Simpson Institute for Western Politics.

Western Kentucky U. : $1,500,000 from Carroll Knicely of Glasgow, Ky., a former Commerce Secretary of the State of Kentucky, and his wife, Evelyn, for capital needs at the Institute for Economic Development and Public Service, and to create a professorship in leadership studies.