Denny Sanford Gives National U. $350 Million and UVa Gets $100 Million for First-Generation Students (Gifts Roundup)

A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:

National University

The South Dakota billionaire Denny Sanford pledged $350 million to National University, in San Diego, to endow current and future programs. The gift will be paid over time and will be used primarily to helping working, adult students.

The university, which is part of the National University system, will be renamed Sanford National University in July. This is one of several, and the biggest, gift he has given to the university over the last six years.

Sanford founded First Premier Bank and is chairman of United National Corporation, its holding company, in Sioux Falls, S.D. He divides his time between homes in South Dakota and San Diego.

University of Virginia

David and Jane Walentas gave $100 million to create scholarships and fellowships benefiting first-generation students and to create more professorships. Of the total, $50 million will establish the Walentas Scholars program, which will be aimed at helping students from Virginia; Rochester, N.Y., where David Walentas grew up; and New York City, where he built his business.

In addition, $25 million will be used to create a new fellowship program for first-generation MBA students, and the remaining $25 million will be directed toward the Darden Jefferson Fellowship Program and the A. Macdonald Caputo Leadership Excellence Fund. It will also be used to establish a visiting professorship, professorships in real estate at the Darden School of Business and two others that the university’s president will determine later.

David Walentas founded Two Trees Management, real estate development firm in New York. Walentas earned a bachelor’s degree from UVA in 1961 and his MBA from the Darden School of Business in 1964. He grew up in humble circumstances and was the first person in his family to attend college

“My time at UVA completely changed my life,” David Walentas told the Washington Post “I wish all the recipients good luck, and have a go, and have the courage to follow your dreams.”

Harvard University

Hock Tan and Lisa Yang donated $20 million to establish the Hock E. Tan and K. Lisa Yang Center for Autism Research. The new center, led by Harvard Medical School, will focus its research programs on identifying the biologic roots and molecular changes that give rise to autism and related disorders with a goal of developing better diagnostic tools and new therapies.

Tan is chief executive of Broadcom, a global infrastructure technology company. Originally from Penang, Malaysia, he earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and became a U.S. citizen in 1990. Tan has held executive posts at General Motors, PepsiCo, and Integrated Device Technology Inc. Yang, who was born in Singapore, is a retired investment banker who worked for Lehman Brothers and the First Boston Corporation.

Two of the couple’s three children, now adults, are on the autism spectrum, and Tan and Yang have given extensively to autism research. This latest gift brings their total autism-related research funding to nearly $70 million. They previously gave $20 million to MIT to create an autism research center, and donated $10 million to the K. Lisa Yang and Hock E. Tan Employment and Disability Institute at Cornell University.

Morehouse College

Oprah Winfrey gave $13 million to continue the Oprah Winfrey Scholars Program, which she created in 1989 with an initial gift of $12 million.

The scholarship program has paid for the education of almost 600 students, including Randall Woodfin, who graduated from Morehouse in 2003 and went on to become a lawyer and later the mayor of Birmingham, Ala., in 2017; and Oluwabusayo “Tope’” Folarin, a 2004 Morehouse alumnus and Rhodes Scholar who is a writer.

Winfrey founded the cable network OWN and other media holdings. Her popular Oprah Winfrey Show was syndicated nationally and ran from 1986 to 2011. Forbes recently pegged her net worth at $2.7 billion. She is a serial philanthropist who has appeared on the Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50 list of the biggest donors six times since 2003.

Central Houston Civic Improvement Inc.

Lynn Wyatt pledged $10 million to renovate Jones Plaza, a downtown public square in Houston’s arts district that will be renamed Lynn Wyatt Square for the Performing Arts.

Wyatt’s gift is part of an extensive overhaul of the plaza, which is scheduled to be completed in 2021 and will include performance and public spaces, gardens, and a restaurant. Central Houston Civic Improvement Inc. is the nonprofit fiscal sponsor accepting the money for Houston First Corporation, which is leading the effort.

Wyatt’s grandfather and great-uncle started the now-shuttered Sakowitz Department Store chain in Houston, and her husband, Oscar Wyatt, is an oil executive who founded Houston’s Coastal Corporation and currently serves as chief executive of NuCoastal.

University of Tennessee at Knoxville

Sara and Ross Croley gave $7.5 million to the College of Nursing. Of the total, $5.5 million will back the college’s building renovation and expansion, and $2 million will be used to establish the Sara Rosenbalm Croley Endowed Dean’s Chair.

Ross Croley founded Community Brands, which manufactures cloud-based software and payment systems for nonprofits and membership associations; and Greater Sum Ventures, a private-equity firm in Knoxville. Sara Croley is a former nurse who graduated from the College of Nursing in 2000.

Marquette University

Thomas and Suzanne Werner pledged $5 million to create the Thomas & Suzanne Werner Endowed Scholars Program for First-Generation Students and to support Marquette’s preorientation program, which provides underrepresented students with additional resources and helps them acclimate to campus life weeks before they begin classes.

Tom Werner is chief executive of SunPower Corporation, a solar-energy company in San Jose, Calif., that designs and manufactures crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells and the solar panels in which the cells are used

He graduated with a bachelor of science degree from Marquette in 1986 and has served on Marquette’s Board of Trustees since 2012.

Hiram College

Harlene Jones Lee left $3.4 million for student health programs, athletics, and three new endowed scholarship funds: one for students preparing for law school, a second for students bound for medical school, and a third for high-achieving students.

Lee graduated from Hiram College in 1951 with a bachelor of arts degree in elementary education and went on to teach primary school in Maple Heights, a public school district southeast of Cleveland, Ohio.

She was also an ice skater of some note who earned awards in the ice-dancing and free ice-dancing categories in the United States and Canada. She skated in competitions and exhibitions worldwide with her skating partner, F. Ritter Shumway, who played a prominent role in U.S. figure skating and served as president of the U.S. Figure Skating Association in the 1960s. Lee died in 2019.

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

Maria Di Mento directs the annual Philanthropy 50, a comprehensive report on America’s top donors. She writes about wealthy philanthropists, arts organizations, and key trends, among other topics. She recently wrote about a $125 million gift from hedge-fund manager Ken Griffin to a major science museum and a $100 million commitment from Nicole Shanahan for reproductive research and other causes. Email Maria or follow her on Twitter.