Gifts Roundup: $10 Million Bequest Backs Women’s Scholarships at Southeastern Louisiana

A roundup of notable gifts compiled by The Chronicle:

Manistee County Community Foundation

Forest Minger Jr. left $15 million to create two endowments.

Mr. Minger, a longtime chemist at Dow Chemical who passed away last year, directed $13 million to establish a fund for the upkeep of existing recreational programs and facilities in Manistee County, Mich. The money can also be used to pay for new programs.

The remaining $2 million will create a scholarship fund for Manistee County students to attend college.

Another scholarship endowment Mr. Minger established at the foundation during his lifetime will be rolled into the new fund.

Southeastern Louisiana University

Seth Ryan bequeathed approximately $10 million to endow scholarships for women studying STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and math) or pursuing degrees in business, education, or nursing.

Mr. Ryan, who died earlier this year, stipulated that his bequest to aid female students honor his late wife, Thelma McNamara Nicaud Ryan, who was unable to attend college.

University officials said in a news release that they plan to rename the campus’s Biology Building for Ms. Ryan and that all programs housed there will offer scholarships made possible by the bequest.

Mr. Ryan graduated from the university in 1953 with a degree in business and worked as an investor.

Stonehill College

Leo Meehan gave $10 million to pay for the construction of a building for the newly established School of Business, which will be named for the donor.

Mr. Meehan, the president of office-supply company W.B. Mason, graduated from the college in 1975 and serves on its Board of Trustees.

Work on the new building will begin next spring. It is slated to open for the 2019-20 academic year.

Colby College

Jim and Andrea Crook donated $8.3 million for a new basketball arena, which will be named for them. A portion of the donation — $500,000 — will go toward Colby’s annual fund.

Mr. Crook is a private-equity investor and a former chief executive of IDX Systems Corporation, where he worked for 25 years.

He graduated from the college in 1978 and is a member of its Board of Trustees. The couple’s daughter, Lexi, graduated from Colby in 2011.

North Shore Medical Center

Arthur Epstein pledged $5 million to help pay for a new behavioral-health center at the hospital’s Salem, Mass., campus.

Mr. Epstein is a businessman and investor who began his career with Midas Muffler in 1965. He later became a partner in the real-estate firm Cres Development.

He has served on North Shore’s Board of Trustees since 2006 and made his first big gift to the hospital system in 2002. He gave $1 million in 2007 to back the Mass General/North Shore Center for Outpatient Care in Danvers, Mass.

University of California at Los Angeles School of Law

David Sanders gave $2 million to endow a professorship; the Dukeminier Awards Journal, which annually recognizes the best published legal scholarship on sexual orientation and gender identity; and research into civil rights, LGBT rights, women’s rights, and diversity.

Dr. Sanders is a psychiatrist and a former lecturer and associate clinical professor of psychiatry at UCLA.

His late partner, Jesse Dukeminier, was a professor at the law school for more than 40 years and a property-law expert.

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