Harry and Linda Fath Pledge $50 Million to Cincinnati Catholic School for Boys

A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:

St. Xavier High School

The Catholic high school for boys in Cincinnati has received a pledge of $50 million from Harry and Linda Fath to provide tuition assistance to students in need. The gift kicks off a $200 million capital campaign to enhance the private school’s academic and religious programs, upgrade facilities, and mitigate tuition increases in the future.

Harry Fath, who graduated from the high school in 1959, owns Fath Properties, a Cincinnati company that manages apartment buildings throughout Indiana, Kansas, Ohio, and Texas. He is also a minority owner of the Cincinnati Reds baseball team.

The Faths have appeared on the Philanthropy 50, the Chronicle’s annual ranking of top donors, three times.

Nemours Children’s Health

The pediatric hospital in Florida has received $25 million from Alan Ginsburg through the Ginsburg Family Foundation to create a think tank designed to improve health care for children from medically underserved communities.

The Ginsburg Institute for Health Equity will assemble an interdisciplinary team of pediatric health-care providers, behavioral economists, researchers, environmental health experts, data analysts, and other specialists to work together on research and policy efforts that remove barriers to health-care access for children. The institute will also strengthen the hospital’s existing programs, including its community-based mobile medical units and telehealth platforms.

Ginsburg is the chief executive of the CED Companies, a real-estate firm in Maitland, Fla., that develops and manages apartment complexes.

The gift to Nemours is one of three he gave this month. He also donated $10 million to help build a new location for the Holocaust Museum for Hope and Humanity in downtown Orlando, Fla., and $5 million to the University of Central Florida to establish the Ginsburg Center for Inclusion and Community Engagement.

West Virginia University

Ken and Randy Kendrick have pledged $20 million over 10 years to develop academic programs in economics for West Virginia high-school students and educators through the Kendrick Center for an Ethical Economy. The center will be housed within the John Chambers College of Business and Economics, and the university will match the gift with an additional $20 million.

Ken Kendrick, who earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the university in 1965, is a banking-technology entrepreneur and principal investor in Woodforest National Bank. He is also the managing general partner and principal owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks professional baseball team.

Tougaloo College and Brown University

The billionaires Reed Hastings and Patty Quillin gave $10 million to endow financial support for students at Tougaloo College, a historically Black college in Mississippi. The couple are giving $5 million to back financial aid for students who are pursuing careers in business, education, medicine, public health, the sciences, and other fields.

The remaining $5 million will establish the Brown-Tougaloo Partnership Scholarship Fund at Brown University. The fund will support a long-running partnership that started in 1964 during the Civil Rights Movement to connect students, faculty, and staff from both institutions through academic exchanges, fellowships, research projects, and other programs. The university will give financial support to Tougaloo students who enroll at Brown for a graduate or medical degree or participate in an academic exchange program.

Hastings is the co-founder and CEO of Netflix. Quillin is a documentary filmmaker. The couple has appeared on the Philanthropy 50 twice.

Irving S. Gilmore International Piano Festival

Larry Bell has given $8 million to create the Larry J. Bell Jazz Artist Award for jazz pianists. Every four years, the piano festival will give one jazz artist $300,000, composed of $250,000 payable over four years for opportunities to enhance the pianist’s career and a $50,000 cash grant to be used at the artist’s discretion. Beginning in 2024, the gift will also establish the Larry J. Bell Young Jazz Artist Award, which will award $25,000 every two years to American jazz pianists who are age 22 and younger.

Bell is the founder of Bell’s Brewery, a craft-beer company in Kalamazoo, Mich. He is also president of the piano festival’s Board of Trustees.

University of Kentucky

The university in Lexington has received $5 million from C.M. (Bill) Gatton to create a variety of scholarship programs.

Students from medically underserved areas will be eligible to receive scholarships to the university’s College of Medicine. Current students from Kentucky will also receive scholarships based on financial need and academic progress toward graduation. First-year students who hail from Kentucky’s Muhlenberg and McLean counties and undergraduate students who attended the Gatton Academy, an early college entrance program for gifted students, will be eligible for scholarship awards from a third program.

Gatton founded Area Bancshares, a bank holding company that was sold to BB&T in 2002. He graduated from the university in 1954.

Pratt Institute

The New York college known for its programs in art, design, and architecture has received $3.5 million from Jane Nord to create the Jane B. Nord Professor of Fashion Design, the institute’s first named academic position.

Nord, who is 101, is an alumna who received her art and design certificate in 1945. She taught color theory and other classes at Pratt for three years.

Maple Counseling

Judy Briskin and one of her sons, Rex Wilder, donated $1.5 million through the Judy and Bernard Briskin Charitable Foundation to create the Briskin Wilder Welcome Center. The center will offer free personalized guidance by licensed practitioners in mental health to help people in the Los Angeles area locate affordable and high-quality mental-health care, whether with Maple Counseling or another agency or support system.

Briskin’s late husband, Bernard Briskin, was the retired president and CEO of the Arden Group, which owns a variety of supermarkets and food companies in Southern California. He died in 2020. Rex Wilder serves as vice chair on the organization’s Board of Directors. He survived his own psychological crisis at age 62, and their gift is designed to expand mental-health options for people in need.

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