Health Center to Receive $35-Million

Eight institutions have received big gifts:

• St. John’s Health Center, in Santa Monica, Calif., has received a pledge of $35-million from Patrick Soon-Shiong, founder and chief executive officer of Abraxis BioScience, a pharmaceutical-development company in Los Angeles, and his wife, Michele B. Chan. Most of the money, $25-million, will support the hospital’s planned expansion and capital campaign. The remaining $10-million will help establish a center for translational sciences and develop a master plan for the hospital’s South Campus.

• Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minn., has received $27.5-million from W. Hall Wendel Jr., a retired chairman of Polaris Industries, a snowmobile-manufacturing company in Medina, Minn., to endow a professorship and a research fund at the clinic’s Musculoskeletal Center. Mr. Wendel has had both shoulders and both knees surgically replaced at the clinic.

• Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network, in Pennsylvania, has received a bequest of $20-million from Elsa Farr, who died last year at the age of 96, to support professional development for nurses. Ms. Farr was the widow of Harvey Farr, a co-founder and former president of the Farr Brothers and Company shoe stores, based in Allentown, Pa. Both Mr. and Ms. Farr were treated at the hospital.

• Northwestern Memorial Hospital, in Chicago, has received a pledge of $20-million from Wesley M. Dixon, president of Sudix, a manufacturing company in Skokie, Ill., and his wife, Suzanne, to establish a Translational Research Fund. The money will support research on how to use clinical discoveries to improve patient care. The Dixons have previously given more than $6-million to the hospital since the 1960s.

• Oklahoma State University, in Stillwater, has received a pledge of $20-million from Sherman Smith, a former chairman of SerDrilco, a service and drilling company in Tulsa, to support a new athletic indoor-practice facility. Mr. Smith graduated from OSU in 1948 with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering.

• Florida Atlantic University, in Boca Raton, has received a pledge of $16-million from Barry and Carole Kaye to establish an endowment to support academic programs, faculty, and students at the university’s College of Business. Mr. Kaye is chairman of Barry Kaye Associates, a life-insurance firm in Boca Raton. Mr. and Ms. Kaye founded the Carole and Barry Kaye Museum of Miniatures, in Naples, Fla.

• Lorry I. Lokey, founder and chairman of Business Wire, a San Francisco company that distributes press releases, has pledged $15-million to the University of Oregon, in Eugene, to help construct a new science building. Mr. Lokey has given a total of $47-million to the university since 2004. Mr. Lokey sold Business Wire to Berkshire Hathaway, the investment company, last year.

• The Inland Northwest Community Foundation, in Spokane, Wash., has received a bequest of $12-million from Margaret F. Galbraith to create a fund that will benefit six counties in northern Idaho. Grants from the fund will focus on children and youth, economic development, education, environmental conservation, and recreational facilities. Ms. Galbraith, who died in 2005 at age 89, inherited money from her father, a mining- and utilities-industry magnate.

Other recent gifts:

Baltimore Shakespeare Festival: $1-million from an anonymous donor to create an endowment.

Bethune-Cookman College (Daytona Beach, Fla.): $4.6-million unrestricted gift from an anonymous donor. The gift is still unallocated, but the college may use it to help build a new football-training facility and a building for the School of Nursing.

Columbia U., Graduate School of Journalism (New York): $5-million pledge from Leo Hindery Jr., chairman of InterMedia Advisors, in New York, which manages investments for InterMedia Partners VII, to support scholarships. Mr. Hindery’s daughter, Robin, graduated from the school in 2004 with a master’s degree in journalism.

Community Foundation of Fort Dodge and North Central Iowa (Fort Dodge): $2-million from Tim and Kellie Guderian, who won a $220-million Powerball jackpot, to create a donor-advised fund. Ms. Guderian formerly worked at Wal-Mart, and Mr. Guderian works as a detailer at a car dealership.

Curtis Institute of Music (Philadelphia): $2-million from the estate of Maryjane Mayhew Barton, a professional harpist, to endow a professorship in harp studies and scholarships for students. Ms. Barton, who died in 2005, graduated from Curtis in 1936 with a bachelor’s degree in harp.

Edison College (Fort Myers, Fla.): $2.3-million from Richard H. Rush, a retired art investor, and his wife, Julia, to endow the library and student scholarships.

Emory U. (Atlanta): $2-million from J. Rex Fuqua, chief executive officer of Fuqua Capital and managing director of Fuqua Ventures, both in Atlanta, to endow a professorship in child psychiatry.

Green Mountain College (Poultney, Vt.): $1-million unrestricted gift from Edward and Elizabeth Jaeger, who live in Lancaster, Pa. Ms. Jaeger graduated from the college in 1965.

Habitat for Humanity of Anderson County (Oak Ridge, Tenn.): a building valued at $1-million from an anonymous donor to house its administrative officers. The organization’s original headquarters burned down in 2004.

Hamilton College (Clinton, N.Y.): $2.5-million from Joel W. Johnson, a retired chief executive officer of Hormel Foods, in Austin, Minn., and his wife, Elizabeth, to endow a professorship in environmental studies. Mr. Johnson graduated from the college in 1965 with a bachelor’s degree in economics.

Make-a-Wish Foundation of New Jersey (Monroe Township): $2-million from Joseph J. Plumeri, chairman of Willis Group Holdings, a global insurance broker in New York, and his wife, Nancy, to support the charity’s work and help build new headquarters for the chapter.

National Park Community College (Hot Springs, Ark.): $1.5-million from Frederick M. Dierks, a former president of Dierks Lumber, in Hot Springs, for a new nursing and health-sciences facility.

New Jersey Performing Arts Center (Newark): $3.5-million from Leon Cooperman, chairman of Omega Advisors and former chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, both in New York, and his wife, Toby, to support efforts to engage inner-city children with the arts center.

Philadelphia Museum of Art: $3-million each from H.F. (Gerry) Lenfest, founder of Lenfest Communications, in Wilmington, Del., and chair of the Lenfest Foundation, in West Conshohocken, Pa., and Joseph Neubauer, chairman of Aramark, a food-service provider in Philadelphia. The gifts are designated for the museum’s Fund for Eakins’ Masterpiece, which is collecting money to purchase the Thomas Eakins painting The Gross Clinic from Thomas Jefferson U., in Philadelphia.

Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital (Cleveland): $1.5-million from Chuck Fowler, chief executive officer of Fairmount Minerals, in Chardon, Ohio, and his wife, Char, to endow a chair in adolescent and young-adult cancer. The gift is given in honor of the couple’s daughter, Angie, who died from melanoma 25 years ago at the age of 14.

Suburban Hospital (Bethesda, Md.): $1-million from Donald S. Orkand, founder of D.C. Ventures and Associates, a business consulting company in McLean, Va., and his wife, Kim, to establish a center for interventional cardiology. The money will buy equipment and support other operating expenses.

Trevecca Nazarene U. (Nashville): $2-million pledge from an anonymous donor to renovate a building that will house the university’s School of Business. The new facility will include administrative and faculty offices, classrooms, a computer lab, a snack shop, and a student lounge.

U. of Chicago: $7-million from Steve G. Stevanovich, founder of SGS Asset Management, to support its Center for Financial Mathematics. Mr. Stevanovich graduated from the university in 1985 with a bachelor’s degree in economics, and received his master’s in business administration there in 1990.

U. of Florida (Gainesville): $1.5-million from Donald Dizney, chairman of United Medical Corporation, in Windermere, Fla., and his wife, Irene, to endow a professorship in addiction medicine at the university’s College of Medicine.

U. of Missouri at Columbia: $2-million from Tom and Betty Scott to provide unrestricted support for the university’s College of Veterinary Medicine. Ms. Scott, who attended the university’s School of Nursing from 1956 to 1958, is a retired administrative manager at Thomas Koontz Pinkerton Helling & Nelson, a surgical group in Kansas City, Mo. Mr. Scott, the founder and a retired president of the Insurance Management Corporation, in Kansas City, Mo., graduated from the university in 1958 with a bachelor’s degree in business.

U. of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia): $6-million from Judith Bollinger, a director of ABG Sundal Collier, an investment consulting company in Norway, and her husband, William, to endow fellowships and scholarships at the university’s Wharton School. Ms. Bollinger graduated from the school in 1981 with a master’s degree in business administration. The university has also received $1-million from Elizabeth Kendall, a retired nurse at the Hospital of the U. of Pennsylvania, and her husband, John, to create a fund to support fellowships in radiation oncology for doctors, nurses, and technicians. Ms. Kendall, who graduated from the university’s School of Nursing in 1968, worked in the radiation-oncology department from 1977 until her retirement in 1993.

U. of Pittsburgh: $1-million from William F. Benter, chief executive officer of Acusis, a medical-transcription company in Pittsburgh, to endow a professorship in contemporary international issues.

U. of Wyoming (Laramie): $5-million from Jim Nielson, president of Nielson & Associates, an energy company in Cody, Wyo., to endow the university’s School of Energy Resources. Mr. Nielson graduated from the university’s College of Business in 1954 with a bachelor’s degree.

–Compiled by Anne W. Howard