DePauw U., Ole Miss Get Large Gifts

Two universities have received big gifts:

An anonymous donor has given $39.2-million to DePauw University, in Greencastle, Ind., for scholarships. The donation increases the university’s endowment to $340-million and pushes the capital campaign past its $153-million goal, to $191-million.

Richard Scruggs, a lawyer in Pascagoula, Miss., and his wife, Diane, have pledged $25-million to the University of Mississippi for salaries for faculty members at the College of Liberal Arts.

The couple promised to give $1-million a year over the next quarter century. Campus officials and Mr. Scruggs said that they hoped the gift would increase the university’s chances of being awarded a Phi Beta Kappa chapter within the next year.

Other recent gifts:

Coe College (Iowa): $2,394,150 bequest from the estate of Embersine McMillan-McKean of Palo Alto, Cal., whose late husband, Frank, operated a funeral home, to endow the art department.

Meharry Medical College (Tenn.): $1,500,000 from Wendell F. Cox of Detroit, a dentist and radio-broadcasting executive, for a professorship in periodontics, scholarships at the School of Dentistry, and renovations to the school’s dental center.

North Dakota State U.: $2,700,000 bequest from the estates of Walter Booth of Ormond Beach, Fla., an engineer, and his wife, Helene, for professorships, scholarships, and faculty salaries at the College of Engineering and Architecture.

St. John’s U. (N.Y.): $5,000,000 from an anonymous donor to construct a church on its Queens campus, and $3,000,000 from Jerome Belson of New York, chairman of Belson Enterprises, a real-estate development and management company, and his wife, Maxine, to construct a soccer stadium.

State U. of New York College at Geneseo: $1,200,000 bequest from the estate of Spencer J. Roemer of Geneseo, dean emeritus of admissions, to endow scholarships and for an arboretum.

U. of Evansville (Ill.): Bequest and charitable remainder unitrust totaling $1,716,700 from the estate of Herman R. Siegert of Princeton, Ind., a retired farmer and electrician, for scholarships.

U. of New Hampshire: $1,000,000 from Raymond Tuttle of Wolfeboro, N.H., a horticulturist and landscape architect, for the horticulture program.

U. of Pennsylvania: $2,000,000 from Paul Levy of New York, chairman of Lancer Industries and managing general partner of Joseph Littlejohn & Levy, and his wife, Karen, to establish a conference center at the Law School.

U. of Rochester (N.Y.): $5,000,000 from an anonymous donor to establish a biomedical-sciences research institute.