Gifts Roundup: L.A. Children’s Hospital Lands $20 Million; Houston Park Receives $10 Million

A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:

Children’s Hospital Los Angeles

An anonymous donor gave $20 million to expand patient care in the hospital’s Maurice Marciano Family Foundation Emergency Department and Trauma Center.

A portion of the gift will be used to create a team trained to prepare and calm young patients during intense emergency procedures, communicate with anxious family members, and guide clinicians on child-friendly care delivery methods.

The money will also support the expansion of the department’s waiting room, create more areas for patients, pay for new cardiopulmonary monitors and other equipment, and renovate nursing stations.

Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics

Alexander Levi, and his wife, Vicki Levi, donated $15 million to establish the Ruth R. Faden Endowment for Education in Bioethics, named for the Berman Institute’s founder.

Alexander Levi is a clinical psychologist and a trustee emeritus of Johns Hopkins University. He also serves as chairman of the Berman Institute of Bioethics’ national advisory board.

The fund will endow the Hecht-Levi Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, which Levi helped create with a previous gift. The new donation will also be used for financial aid for students in the Berman Institute’s Master of Bioethics program to back research and conference travel for doctoral students in Health Policy and Ethics and to assist fellows and students in the Ruth Faden Scholars Program.

Memorial Park Conservancy

Robert and Emily Clay pledged $10 million to support the restoration and expansion of the Houston park and the park’s conservation program.

Robert Clay founded Clay Development and Construction. The couple grew up and live in the Houston area and said in a news release that the 1,500-acre park has been a regular part of their lives since they were children.

University of California at Los Angeles Samueli School of Engineering

Robert and Dorothy Webb gave $3 million. Most of the gift — $2.5 million — will go toward the new Engineering VI building, and the remaining $500,000 will be used to create the Dr. Robert M. Webb and Mrs. Dorothy Webb Endowed Fellowship, which will back graduate students in any engineering field.

Robert Webb, an aerospace consultant, earned bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from the engineering school in the 1950s and ’60s. He worked as a nuclear engineer at TRW, a manufacturer of space and defense technology and information systems. The projects he worked on included the Mars Nerva program and the Pioneer 10 spacecraft, the first man-made object to leave the solar system.

Dorothy Webb earned a bachelor’s degree in Spanish from university and worked as a technical librarian at Hughes Aircraft for more than 20 years before serving as a foreign-language librarian for Los Angeles County. The Webbs met at UCLA in a coffee room in Engineering Unit 2, now known as Boelter Hall.

Citrus College Foundation

John Cassey left $1.3 million for student and faculty enrichment programs.

Cassey was a faculty member at Citrus College from 1960 to 2002. He taught western civilization, world politics, and humanities courses at Citrus before retiring in October 2002. He died in 2017.

San Diego State University

Robert DeKoven pledged $1 million for the university’s Pride Center and its LGBT Studies Program.

DeKoven is a legal writing professor at California Western School of Law and an affiliated faculty member in San Diego State University’s LGBT Studies Program. He graduated from the university in 1980 and has previously supported the university’s Lavender Graduation, which highlights the achievements of graduating LGBTQ students.

He co-wrote the Human Dignity Ordinance passed by the San Diego City Council in 1990 to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation in housing, employment, and lending.

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