Donor Gives U. of Michigan Health System $50-Million; Other New Donations

Seven institutions have received big gifts:

• The University of Michigan Health System, in Ann Arbor, has received a pledge of $50-million from an anonymous donor to support its cardiovascular center. Half of the gift will be donated over 10 years. The donor has stipulated that the remaining $25-million will be delivered when the health system meets certain goals, such as how much it does to spur collaboration between researchers and physicians and how satisfied its patients are.
• The Carnegie Corporation, in New York, has received approximately $30-million from an anonymous donor to provide grants to 530 arts, culture, and social-service organizations in New York.
• J. Wayne and Delores Barr Weaver, majority owners of the Jacksonville Jaguars professional football team, in Florida, have pledged $21-million to the Community Foundation in Jacksonville. Of the gift, $10-million will establish permanent endowments for 21 nonprofit groups in northeast Florida, and the remaining $11-million will be distributed among 33 local organizations. Mr. Weaver is president of the football team, and Ms. Weaver is president of the Jacksonville Jaguars Foundation.
• The Seattle Opera has received a pledge of $15-million from Gerard L. Hanauer, co-chairman of Pacific Coast Feather Company, a pillow and comforter manufacturer in Seattle. Most of the money — $10-million — will permanently endow the opera; of the remainder, $4-million will provide annual support for the next four years, and $1-million is a bequest.
• The Presbyterian Foundation, in Jeffersonville, Ind., has received a bequest of $10-million from the estate of Geraldine C. Heiserman, who, with her husband, owned and farmed land in Yuma, Colo., to support the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Ms. Heiserman died in 1966, but the bequest was just released to the foundation.
• The University of Kansas, in Lawrence, has received a pledge of $10-million from Kent McCarthy, an adjunct business professor there, to help build a new facility for the business school. Mr. McCarthy, who founded Jay Hawk Capital Management, an investment firm in Mission, Kan., will give the money to the institution if it can raise an additional $15-million for the project by March. He received both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in business from the university, in 1980 and 1981 respectively.
• The University of Notre Dame, in South Bend, Ind., has received a pledge of $10-million from Charles M. (Mike) Harper, retired chair of RJR Nabisco, a conglomerate in Winston-Salem, N.C., to help build a new facility for the medical school and cancer research, in collaboration with the Indiana University School of Medicine at South Bend. The new building will house researchers and faculty members from both universities, who together will study cancer biology with an emphasis on genes and proteins. Mr. Harper’s wife, Josie, died of lung cancer in 1999.

  The university has also received $10-million from Robert S. Nanovic, a retired investment adviser who now lives in North Yarmouth, Me., and his wife, Elizabeth, to support undergraduate programs at the Institute for European Studies, which the couple established with a gift in 1993. Mr. Nanovic graduated from Notre Dame in 1954 with a bachelor’s degree.

Other recent gifts:

Bastyr U. (Kenmore, Wash.): $2-million anonymous bequest for its endowment and to support a professorship in botanic medicine.

Bowers Museum of Cultural Art (Santa Ana, Calif.): $2-million from an anonymous donor to endow special exhibitions.

Campbell U. (Buies Creek, N.C.): $1-million pledge from Luby Wood, retired co-owner and president of Super Clean Car Wash, in Gastonia, N.C., and his wife, Catherine, a retired surgical nurse at Gaston Memorial Hospital, in Gastonia, to help build a new chapel for the university’s school of divinity.

Cornell U., Weill Cornell Medical College (New York): $1-million from Leonard Harlan, chairman of the executive committee of Castle Harlan, a private-equity investment firm in New York, and his wife, Fleur, to establish the Clinical Scholar Award to honor an outstanding junior faculty member in the field of neurological surgery.

Curtis Institute of Music (Philadelphia): $1-million from James Matarese, former chief executive officer of Precision Metal Products, in El Cajon, Calif., and his wife, Betty, to endow a professorship in viola studies.

East Bay Community Foundation (Oakland, Calif.): $3-million pledge from an anonymous couple, who are both retired teachers, to endow a scholarship fund for college or trade-school students who graduate from the McClymonds Education Complex high schools. The foundation will receive the gift upon the donors’ deaths.

Maritime Museum of the Gulf of Mexico (Mobile, Ala.): $1-million pledge from Clara McLean and the children of her two brothers to help build the museum, which is expected to open in 2009. The McLean family owned the Waterman Steamship Corporation, a shipping company in Mobile.

Marquette U. (Milwaukee): $1-million from Dennis Klein, chairman of KBS Construction, a building company in Milwaukee, his wife, Barbara, and their family, to help build a new soccer stadium. Mr. and Ms. Klein both graduated from Marquette with bachelor’s degrees in business administration.

Millersville U. (Pa.): $1-million from Charles Winter, a retired surgeon in Lancaster, Pa., to help build a new visual- and performing-arts center.

Montgomery County Community College (Blue Bell, Pa.): $1-million from an anonymous donor to help equip the college’s new Advanced Technology Center, in support of its communications programs.

Museum of Nature & Science (Dallas): one anonymous gift of $5-million, and one of $1-million from another anonymous donor, to support its capital campaign.

New York Philharmonic: $5-million pledge from Oscar S. Schafer, co-founder and managing partner of OSS Capital Management, a private investment firm in New York, and his wife, Didi, to support Concerts in the Parks, a series of outdoor orchestral performances in the city’s public parks.

Randolph-Macon College (Ashland, Va.): $2.6-million from Everette G. (Buddy) Allen, a partner at LeClair Ryan, a law firm in Richmond, Va., and his wife, Ann, to support scholarships for local students, the athletic program, and the annual fund. Mr. Allen graduated from the college in 1962 with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy.

Rockefeller U. (New York): $5.5-million from the family of Paul Milstein, chairman emeritus of Milstein Properties, a real-estate development company in New York, and his son, Howard, chairman of New York Private Bank and Trust, to support cancer research.

Seattle Pacific U.: $4.8-million unrestricted bequest from the estate of Winifred Weter, a retired professor of classics at the university. The gift will be used to help build a performance hall. Ms. Weter, who died last year at the age of 96, taught at the institution from 1935 until 1975.

U. of California at Irvine: $5-million from an anonymous businessman in Los Angeles, to support the university’s department of pediatrics.

U. of Colorado Foundation (Boulder): $1-million pledge from Robert E. Foss, retired chief financial officer of Mid Atlantic Medical Services, a health-service company in Rockville, Md., and his wife, Georganne, to help renovate and expand the business school at the U. of Colorado at Boulder. Mr. Foss graduated from the university in 1971 with a bachelor’s degree in business, and Ms. Foss received her degree in English literature there in 1976.

U. of Michigan (Ann Arbor): $5-million from Stephen M. Ross, founder and chief executive officer of Related, a real-estate development company in New York, to help expand its stadium. Mr. Ross, who graduated from the university in 1962 with a bachelor’s degree in business, donated $100-million in 2004 to the business school.

U. of St. Thomas (Houston): $4.5-million from Trini Mendenhall Sosa, former owner of Fiesta Mart, a chain of grocery stores based in Houston, to support a college-preparation center and its programs.

West Liberty State College (W.Va.): $1.3-million bequest from the estate of Jane Gilleland, who worked at Bloch Brothers, a tobacco company in Wheeling, W.Va., to endow a scholarship fund for middle-income students. Ms. Gilleland died last year.

Wichita State U. Foundation (Kansas): $1.6-million from an anonymous donor to endow a professorship in maternal child health at the College of Health Professions.

Wycliffe Foundation (Orlando, Fla.): $2.8-million unrestricted bequest from the estate of Winifred Weter, a retired professor of classics at Seattle Pacific U. The money will support Wycliffe Bible Translators USA.

— Compiled by Anne W. Howard

To submit announcements of donations from individuals of $1-million or more, please send an e-mail message to gifts@philanthropy.com.