Microsoft Co-Founder to Establish Science-Fiction Museum; Other Gifts

Two organizations have received large pledges:

• Paul G. Allen, co-founder of Microsoft and president of Vulcan, an investment company in Seattle, has pledged to help construct and operate a new museum in Seattle. Tentatively called the Science Fiction Experience, the museum is expected to cost at least $20-million and will be dedicated to science-fiction art, film, and literature. The museum will be housed in the Experience Music Project, a $240-million rock-‘n’-roll museum, also established by Mr. Allen, in 2000.
• The Denver Art Museum has received a $20-million pledge from Frederic Hamilton, chairman of the museum’s Board of Trustees and president and chairman of the Hamilton Companies, in Denver, for endowment. The gift is part of a capital campaign to build a new wing that will house modern, African, and Oceanic art.

Other recent gifts:

Actors’ Fund of America (New York):

$2-million from Lillian Booth, of Alpine, N.J., whose late husband, Ferris Booth, was a private-investment counselor. The gift will support the fund’s nursing home and assisted-living facility in Englewood, N.J.

Bates College (Lewiston, Me.): $1-million pledge from an anonymous donor to endow a scholarship program.

Cambodian Vision in Development (Battambang, Cambodia): $5-million pledge over 15 years from the actress Angelina Jolie to help amputees and veterans of Cambodia’s civil war and to set up a wildlife sanctuary in a region formerly controlled by the Khmer Rouge.

Caritas St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center (Boston): $5-million from the family of the late William F. Connell, chairman and chief executive officer of Connell Limited Partnership, in Boston, who died in 2001. The gift will help create a new emergency department at the hospital.

Catholic Diocese of Cleveland Foundation: Assets valued at approximately $3-million — primarily in the form of stocks and bonds — from Sandra S. Sullivan and her husband, Thomas, chairman of the Board of Directors of RPM, in Medina, Ohio. The couple will transfer the assets of the Thomas C. and Sandra S. Sullivan Foundation to the diocese this spring.

Children’s Hospital Foundation (Denver): $10.5-million from Charles C. Gates Jr., former chair of the Gates Corporation, in Denver, and his family, to construct a new facility for the hospital and to expand its programs.

Dallas Center for the Performing Arts: $1-million from Linda Pitts Custard and her husband, William, president and chief executive officer of Dallas Production, and L. Frank Pitts, chairman of the Pitts Energy Group, in Dallas, to construct this new facility.

Dayton Foundation (Ohio): $3.8-million from the estate of Marie Aull, a naturalist, to augment the endowment of the Aullwood Audubon Center and Farm, in Dayton. Ms. Aull died in August 2002.

Ferris State U. (Big Rapids, Mich.): $1-million from Janice Granger and her husband, Alton, chairman of the Granger Construction Company, in Lansing, Mich., for capital improvements.

George Mason U. (Fairfax, Va.): $1-million from Dwight C. Schar, chairman and chief executive officer of NVR, a home-building and mortgage-banking company in McLean, Va., to support a faculty chair.

Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum (San Antonio): $7-million bequest from the estate of Arthur T. Stieren, an oil producer and rancher in San Antonio, to build a new wing. Mr. Stieren died in 2001.

Richardson Regional Medical Center Foundation (Tex.): $1-million in the form of a charitable-remainder trust from Jerry Owens, chairman emeritus of Owens Country Sausage, in Richardson, for capital improvements.

Stanford U. (Palo Alto, Calif.): $6-million from Ronya Kozmetsky and her husband, George, co-founder of Teledyne Technologies, an electronics company in Los Angeles, to establish a program through which scholars at Stanford and the U. of Texas will conduct research on business ventures in developing countries.

U. of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia): $1-million from Susan Weingarten and her husband, Jeffrey, an alumnus of the university and a partner at Buttonwood Capital Partners (London), to improve services and facilities for students with disabilities.

U. of Pittsburgh: $1.4-million from John A. Swanson, an alumnus and founder of Ansys, in Canonsburg, Pa., to create a center for micro and nano systems in the School of Engineering.

U. of Rochester (N.Y.): $3-million from Charles Munnerlyn, an alumnus and founder of Visx, a manufacturer of machines for laser eye surgery in Santa Clara, Calif., to support a business-incubator program for optics and biomedical engineering at the Institute of Optics.

U. of the South (Sewanee, Tenn.): $3.5-million from Debra Humphreys and her husband, David, an alumnus of the university and president and chief executive officer of Tamko Roofing Products, in Joplin, Mo., to construct a new dormitory.