Former Pizza Tycoon Donates $50-Million to Create Law School; Other Gifts

Thomas S. Monaghan, the billionaire founder and former chairman of Domino’s Pizza, has donated $50-million to create a Catholic law school.

Mr. Monaghan, who had transformed a small pizza store in Ypsilanti, Mich., into the world’s largest pizza-delivery chain, sold his empire last year for about $1-billion and donated part of the proceeds to the Ave Maria Foundation, his private foundation, which supports Catholic education and Catholic charities.

The gift, made through the foundation, will be used to build the Ave Maria School of Law, in Ann Arbor, Mich.

The new school plans to integrate legal education with the moral and religious teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.

It is scheduled to open in the fall of 2000.

Donors have given or pledged big gifts to five other higher-education institutions.

* Chapman University, in Orange, Cal., will receive $20-million from an anonymous donor if others give an equal amount by March 4, 2001 — the conclusion of Chapman’s $160-million campaign.

The donor stipulated two criteria before announcing the challenge: all 42 trustees of the university must give to the campaign, and their donations must total at least $30-million.

As of March 27, all 42 of the trustees had donated a total of $33.9-million. The anonymous benefactor will now match dollar-for-dollar any new donation made to the university up to $20-million, according to a university spokesman.

* Polytechnic University, in Brooklyn, N.Y., has received $10-million from alumnus Joseph J. Jacobs, chairman of an engineering company in Pasadena, Cal., that bears his name.

Mr. Jacobs has offered another $10-million as a challenge. He will match 2-to-1 the first $50,000 of any gift to the university. Any contribution of more than that he will match dollar-for-dollar.

Mr. Jacobs designated his $20-million for capital projects.

* A trust valued at $17.9-million from the estate of Allen C. Adams, a banker and lawyer who died in 1972, has been received by Virginia Theological Seminary, in Alexandria.

Mr. Adams, who was chairman of the former First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Arlington, Va., and co-founder of the Arlington law firm of Adams, Porter, Radigan & Mays, earmarked the trust for scholarships. The seminary received the gift after the trust’s last surviving beneficiary died in January.

* Bard College, in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., has received $15-million from Richard B. Fisher, a director of Morgan Stanley, Dean Witter, Discovery & Company, and his wife, Jeanne.

The couple directed the money to help construct a performing-arts center that will be designed by the architect Frank O. Gehry, and to endow the center’s operations.

* David S. Pottruck, president of the brokerage Charles Schwab Corporation, in San Francisco, has given $12-million to his alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia.

Mr. Pottruck, who wrestled on two Ivy League Championship teams at Penn, directed $10-million to establish a health and fitness center at the university’s gymnasium. He designated the remaining $2-million to help construct an academic center at the Wharton School of Business, from which he earned a master’s degree in 1972.

Other recent gifts:

Adrian College (Mich.): $1,000,000 from Gary Valade of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., executive vice-president of global procurement and supply at DaimlerChrysler, and his wife, Margaret, for library renovations.

Bridgewater College (Va.): $1,300,000 bequest from the estate of Charles D. Lantz of Rockingham, Va., to endow scholarships for students from northern Rockingham County, Va., and $1,000,000 from Fred O. Funkhouser of North Palm Beach, Fla., a retired banker, to help construct a health and fitness center.

Castleton State College (Vt.): $1,000,000 from Virginia Louise Herrick of Ocala, Fla., a retired schoolteacher, for the elementary-education program and for scholarships.

Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro (N.C.): $1,200,000 from Royce Reynolds of Greensboro, owner of Crown Automotive Dealerships, and his wife, Jane, to endow the Greensboro Urban Ministry’s Chaplaincy Program.

Culinary Institute of America (N.Y.): $1,000,000 from Joseph P. DeAlessandro of Westfield, N.J., president of Rutgers Casualty Insurance Company, for the Colavita Center for Italian Food and Wine.

Florida State U.: $1,000,000 from Charlotte Edwards Maguire of Tallahassee, Fla., a physician, to establish a professorship in the Program in Medical Sciences.

Georgia Museum of Art, U. of Georgia: $8,000,000 bequest from the estate of W. Newton Morris of Atlanta, a banker and businessman, to establish a fund for exhibitions, acquisitions, publications, and development programs.

Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind (N.Y.): $1,000,000 bequest from the estate of Hazel M. Crismon of Denver, a former flight attendant, for unrestricted use.

The Johns Hopkins U. (Md.) $1,100,000 bequest from the estate of Reba Hollingsworth of Bel Air, Md., whose late husband, Egbert, was a physician, to endow research in myeloid metaplasia, a bone-marrow disorder.

Juliette Fowler Homes (Tex.): $2,000,000 bequest from the estate of Rushia Allen of Tyler, Tex., whose late husband, Robert, was a cotton seller and a partner in a general store, to endow services for youths and elderly people. Juliette Fowler Homes comprises three residences for people over age 62 and a counseling center for emotionally disturbed adolescents.

Keene State College (N.H.): $2,280,000 bequest from the estate of Austin Hubbard of Walpole, N.H., co-founder of the Hubbard Farms poultry-breeding business, for scholarships.

The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis: $1,000,000 from Candice Barrs of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., widow of Albert Barrs, a lawyer, to help construct the rehabilitation center and the cell-transplant laboratory at the Lois Pope LIFE Center.

Michigan Technological U.: $2,500,000 from Richard Robbins of Seattle, former president of the Robbins Company, which manufactures tunnel-boring equipment, and his wife, Bonnie, for the Environmental Sciences and Engineering Building, the Center for the Performing Arts, and the mining-engineering department. This gift augments a $2,500,000 donation made in April 1995.

Montgomery College (Md.): $1,260,000 from Gordon Macklin of Bethesda, Md., a corporate financial adviser and former president of the National Association of Securities Dealers, and his wife, Marilyn, to establish a business institute.

Multi-Service Centers of North & East King County (Wash.): $1,000,000 from Patty Stonesifer of Redmond, Wash., president of the Gates Learning Foundation and a former senior vice-president at Microsoft, for this social-services organization’s capital campaign.

New Hampshire Charitable Foundation: $1,600,000 bequest from the estate of Austin Hubbard of Walpole, N.H., co-founder of the Hubbard Farms poultry-breeding business, to endow a scholarship fund for students from Fall Mountain Regional High School, in Langdon, N.H., and a fund for environmental preservation.

Operation Kindness (Tex.): $1,000,000 from Charles E. Seay of Dallas, founder of an insurance-investment company that bears his name, and his wife, Sarah, to help build a shelter for unwanted cats and dogs. Operation Kindness is a “no-kill” animal-welfare organization.

Santa Rosa Symphony (Cal.): $1,000,000 from Jacques Schlumberger of Healdsburg, Cal., a vintner, and his wife, Barbara, a marriage counselor, to help construct the Center for the Musical Arts at Sonoma State U.

Southern Methodist U. (Tex.): $1,000,000 bequest from the estate of Vivian J. Carson of St. Louis, a schoolteacher, to endow scholarships for students from the St. Louis area.

Spartanburg Methodist College (S.C.): $1,200,000 from Edgar Ellis of Simpsonville, S.C., a retired United Methodist minister, for preparatory programs for potential ministers and for scholarships.

St. Petersburg Junior College (Fla.): $1,000,000 from Walter L. Schafer of St. Petersburg, a retired pediatrician, and his wife, Vivian, to establish a professorship in nursing.

State U. of New York at Buffalo: $1,000,000 from Violet Newton of Bradenton, Fla., a retired banker and widow of Cecil Newton, a pharmacist and store manager at the Walgreen Company, to endow scholarships at the School of Pharmacy.

Texas Tech U.: $1,000,000 from Gary Hughes of Lubbock, Tex., a representative at Aetna Investment Services, and his wife, Karen, director of scheduling at Aetna, for the capital campaign.

U. of California at Irvine: $1,000,000 from Albert Nichols of Laguna Beach, Cal., a physician, and his wife, Tricia, to establish a visiting professorship in the humanities.

U. of Findlay (Ohio): $1,300,000 from Gordon Macklin of Bethesda, Md., a corporate financial adviser and former president of the National Association of Securities Dealers, and his wife, Marilyn, for a program in intergenerational studies.

U. of Maine: $1,000,000 from Robert D. Buchanan of Whittier, Cal., a retired dentist, for its new alumni house.

U. of Memphis: $1,000,000 from William B. Dunavant, Jr., of Memphis, chairman of Dunavant Enterprises, which primarily sells cotton, to endow a program at the College of Arts and Sciences that will provide stipends to outstanding faculty members.

U. of Minnesota-Twin Cities: $5,000,000 bequest from the estates of Edmund W. Tulloch of San Francisco, a civil servant and investor, and his wife, Anna, for unrestricted support of research at the Medical School.

U. of New Hampshire: $2,026,028 bequest from the estate of Austin Hubbard of Walpole, N.H., co-founder of the Hubbard Farms poultry-breeding business, for scholarships for students from New Hampshire.

U. of Northern Colorado: $4,000,000 from Bill Daniels of Denver, chairman of Daniels Communications Inc., a cable-television company, for scholarships and capital improvements.

U. of San Francisco: $5,000,000 from the university’s Jesuit community to establish two foundations intended to promote Roman Catholic and Jesuit education and values, and $3,200,000 from Arthur Zief, Jr., of San Francisco, a retired real-estate lawyer, to help construct a library for the School of Law.

U. of South Florida: $3,000,000 estate commitment from A. Bayard Angle of Seminole, Fla., a retired lawyer, for the Resource Center for Florida History and Politics and for the Virtual Library, an Internet resource.

U. of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas: $1,000,000 from Linda Hart of Dallas, a lawyer and vice-chairman of the Hart Group, and her husband, Mitch, chairman of the Hart Group and former president of Electronic Data Systems Corporation, to establish a professorship in family practice.

U. of Wyoming: $4,200,000 from Curtis Rochelle of Cheyenne, Wyo., founder of Rochelle Livestock Company and a director of United International Holdings, and his wife, Marian, to help construct an athletics facility.