Harvard Gets $25-Million; Other New Gifts

Five organizations have received large gifts:

• Hansjoerg Wyss has donated $25-million to Harvard Business School, in Cambridge, Mass., to support its doctoral programs. Mr. Wyss, who received an M.B.A. from Harvard in 1965, is the chairman and chief executive officer of Synthes Inc., a medical-device company in Switzerland.
• Auburn University at Montgomery, in Alabama, has received assets estimated to be worth more than $10-million from Ida Belle Young, for scholarships and to endow faculty chairs. Ms. Young, who died this year, was a businesswoman in Montgomery. She also left the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts property valued at more than $10-million.
• Temple University, in Philadelphia, has received $15-million from Gisela and Dennis Alter for a new building at its Fox School of Business and Management. Mr. Alter, of Philadelphia, is chairman and chief executive officer of Advanta, a company that provides credit cards to small businesses.
• Miguel Fernandez, chairman and chief executive officer of several health-care companies in Florida, has donated $10-million to the University of Miami, in Coral Gables, Fla., for a new facility at its business school.

Other recent gifts:

Austen Riggs Center (Stockbridge, Mass.): $1-million from Irving and Barbara Gutin, of Boca Raton, Fla., for its capital campaign to expand programs and facilities, and to enhance the center’s education and research institute. Mr. Gutin is the former senior vice president of mergers and acquisitions at the Tyco Corporation.

Bowling Green State U. (Ohio): $4.4-million pledge from J. Robert and Karen Sebo, of Salem, Ohio, for a new athletics center and other programs. Mr. Sebo is a co-founder and retired senior vice president of Paychex Inc., a company that provides businesses with benefits, human-resources, and payroll services.

Children’s Medical Center Dallas: $5-million from the families of three brothers — Harlan, Stuart, and Trammell Crow — for its fund-raising campaign. The Crows are from the Park Cities area of Texas, and work in international real estate.

Cleveland State U.: $6.25-million commitment from Iris S. Wolstein, of Cleveland, whose husband, Bert, a real-estate developer and 1953 graduate, died this year. Approximately $5-million of the gift will finance facility improvements at the law school, while a $1.25-million challenge portion will endow a scholarship fund for law students.

Foundation for the National Archives (Washington): $1.4-million from Lawrence O’Brien III; his mother, Elva O’Brien; and the O’Brien family, of Washington, to support a campaign to expand the facilities of the National Archives Building. Mr. O’Brien, a former president of the foundation, made the gift in honor of his father, Lawrence O’Brien, who served in senior positions in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations and later as the commissioner of the National Basketball Association. He died in 1990.

Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta): $5-million from Michael Tennenbaum for an institute at which academic, corporate, and government experts will collaborate on new business models. Mr. Tennenbaum, an alumnus of the institute, is senior managing partner of Tennenbaum Capital Partners, in Santa Monica, Calif.

The Johns Hopkins U. (Baltimore): $3-million from Jeffrey A. Legum, a trustee of Johns Hopkins Medicine, and his wife, Harriet, for capital projects to support medical research; $1-million from Peter Bing, of Los Angeles, to endow a scholarship within the Patrick C. Walsh Prostate Cancer Research Fund at the Brady Urological Institute; and $1-million from Donald A. Kurz, chairman and chief executive officer of Equity Marketing, in Los Angeles, to establish a scholarship fund at the school of arts and sciences; to support the Hopkins Fund, which provides scholarship and other support; and for scholarships for undergraduate lacrosse players.

Phillips Exeter Academy (Exeter, N.H.): $2.2-million from Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code, his sister, Valerie, and brother, Gregory, to establish an endowment that will provide computers and other technology to students in need. Their father, Richard, is a professor emeritus at the school.

Tri-State U. (Angola, Ind.): Estate holdings valued at more than $1-million from Emily W. Whitney, of Clifton Springs, N.Y., for a student center, scholarships for engineering students, and the annual fund. Ms. Whitney, who died this year, was the wife of W. Thatcher Whitney, a businessman and a 1931 graduate of the university.

U. of Illinois Foundation (Urbana): $5-million partially deferred gift from Dick Cline, of Wheaton, Ill., chairman of Hawthorne Investors, and his wife, Carole, to create the Center for Study of Democratic Governance on the Urbana-Champaign campus; $5-million from Jim Liautaud, of Chicago, owner of Gabriel Inc. and K40 Electronics, in Elgin, Ill.; his wife, Gina; and their son, Jimmy John, to establish the Liautaud Graduate School of Business on the Urbana-Champaign campus; $2-million from Jeane Erley, of San Diego, and the family of Jeane and Richard Erley, to create a leadership-development program in the College of Business on the Urbana-Champaign campus; and a deferred gift of more than $2-million from Gary Lichtenwalter, of Aspen, Colo., who owned several businesses in Joliet, Ill., and his wife, Daylene, for scholarships for students attending any of the three university campuses.

Young Meadows Presbyterian Church (Montgomery, Ala.): $2-million bequest from Ida Belle Young, a businesswoman in Montgomery, Ala., who died this year.