Fund Receives Land Valued at $180-Million; Other Gifts

Five organizations have received large pledges:

• Leo and Kay Drey, of University City, Mo., have donated a 146,000-acre tract of forest land, valued at $180-million, to the L-A-D Foundation, in St. Louis. Mr. Drey, a conservationist and businessman, established the Pioneer Forest in 1951. He also founded and serves as chair of the L-A-D Foundation, a private operating foundation that currently manages nearly 3,400 acres in Missouri.
• The Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, in Indianapolis, has received 57 works of art valued at $15-million from the family of George Gund, former president of the Cleveland Trust Company, who died in 1966. Most of the artworks have been on loan to the museum since 1989 and will now become part of its permanent collection.
• Bennington College, in Vermont, has received $10-million from Katharine and Albert Merck to endow a fund that will support faculty members, libraries, a neuroscience program, and a political-science program. Mr. Merck is a trustee of Merck & Company, a pharmaceutical company in Whitehouse Station, N.J., that was founded by his family, and Ms. Merck graduated from Bennington in 1946.
• Franklin & Marshall College, in Lancaster, Pa., has received $10-million from Ann Barshinger, of Lancaster, for a life-sciences building. Her husband, Richard, who died in 2001, was a 1943 graduate of the college and former owner of the Red Lion Milling Company. Mrs. Barshinger’s gift matches a $10-million grant from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for the building.
• The University of Central Florida, in Orlando, has received $10-million from Al and Nancy Burnett of Winter Park, Fla., former owners of Contemporary Cars (Maitland, Fla.), to create and endow a new college of biomedical sciences. The college will focus on research on Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, and other illnesses.

Other recent gifts:

The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute (Williamstown, Mass.): $8.4-million from Elizabeth H. Burrows and her husband, Henry Morris Burrows, for new galleries. Mr. Burrows, a former machinist at Fellows Gear Shaper Company, in Springfield, Vt., and a frequent visitor to the museum, died in 2003.

The Johns Hopkins U. (Baltimore): $1-million from Harold N. Taylor, a retired engineer and businessman and a graduate of the university, to renovate the building that houses the School of Engineering; and $2-million for the School of Medicine from an anonymous donor to endow the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery’s Center for Osteonecrosis Research and Education.

Medical College of Georgia (Augusta): $2-million from J. Harold Harrison, of Bartow, Ga., a retired vascular surgeon and former head of the department of surgery at St. Joseph’s Hospital of Atlanta, to endow a chair and for programs in the division of vascular surgery.

The Nature Conservancy of Virginia (Charlottesville): $3-million from an anonymous donor to purchase land and to support conservation efforts in central Virginia.

Northland College (Ashland, Wis.): $6-million from an anonymous donor for library facilities.

Ohio U. (Athens): $1-million from Luci Schey and her husband, Ralph, chairman of Primus Venture Partners (Cleveland) and retired chief executive officer of the Scott Fetzer Company (Westlake, Ohio), for the College of Business. Ms. Schey is a trustee of the Ohio U. Foundation and Mr. Schey earned a bachelor’s degree in commerce from the university in 1948. The university also received $1-million from an anonymous donor for scholarships for students attending the College of Business, to support the teaching of entrepreneurship, and to promote economic development in Appalachian Ohio.

U. of Michigan at Ann Arbor: $1-million from Elder Sang-Yong Nam, a 1966 graduate of the university and founder of Nam Building Management Company (Ann Arbor), to endow Korean studies, to support an exchange program, and to acquire a collection of Korean art.

U. of Missouri at Rolla: $5-million from John Toomey, founder and chair of VSE Corporation (Alexandria, Va.), his wife, Mary, and their three children, to renovate an engineering complex. Mr. Toomey earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the university in 1949 and a master’s degree in 1951.

Volunteer Florida Foundation (Tallahassee): $1-million from the family of H. Wayne Huizenga, owner of the Miami Dolphins football team, to support relief efforts for victims of Hurricane Charley.

Williams College (Williamstown, Mass.): $4.7-million from Elizabeth H. and Henry Morris Burrows, for an endowment to support faculty members. Mr. Burrows, a former machinist at Fellows Gear Shaper Company, in Springfield, Vt., and a 1931 graduate of the college, died in 2003.