MIT Announces 2 Big Gifts, Billion-Dollar Campaign; Other Recent Donations

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, has announced a $1.5-billion capital campaign and gifts of $100-million and $25-million — all in a span of eight days.

Kenan E. Sahin, a 1963 alumnus and founder of Kenan Systems, a maker of commercial accounting software that was acquired by Lucent Technologies in January, has selected four people, including the university’s president, Charles Vest, to help him determine the best use of his $100-million gift. The donation brings the amount raised to date in M.I.T.’s “Calculated Risks, Creative Revolutions” campaign to $761-million.

William A. Porter, founder of the Internet brokerage E*Trade, and his wife, Joan, gave $25-million last month to the institute’s Sloan School of Business to construct a facility that will consolidate research, teaching, and staff and student functions. Mr. Porter graduated from Sloan in 1967.

M.I.T. has scheduled its campaign to conclude in June 2004. A drive that ended in 1992 tallied $710-million.

* Several Atlanta non-profit organizations are the beneficiaries of $140-million left by an heiress to a Coca-Cola fortune.

Lee Edwards Candler, who died in February at the age of 84, was the widow of Charles Howard Candler, Jr., a director of Coca-Cola and a real-estate executive who died in 1988. Mr. Candler’s grandfather, Asa, founded the Coca-Cola Company in 1891.

The Georgia Institute of Technology received $50.5-million for athletics. The Boys & Girls Clubs of Metropolitan Atlanta received $16.87-million; the Atlanta Union Mission, the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Foundation, the High Museum of Art, and the Salvation Army’s divisional headquarters in Atlanta each received $11.25-million; and the Howard School received $5.65-million.

LaGrange College has identified the Candlers as the previously anonymous donors of a $22.5-million gift reported in August (The Chronicle, August 26).

* Tufts University, in Medford, Mass., has received $20-million from Bernard Gordon, chairman of Analogic Corporation, to enhance its engineering program.

Mr. Gordon pioneered inventions such as the CAT scan and Doppler radar. He designated his gift to shape a curriculum at Tufts that will ground engineers in the liberal arts and improve their communication skills.

* Hartford Hospital, in Connecticut, has announced a $16-million bequest of stock from Philip F. and Ruth C. Holton of Indianapolis.

Mr. and Mrs. Holton, who designated their gift for schizophrenia research at the hospital’s mental-health network, died in 1995 and 1997, respectively. Mr. Holton was chief executive officer of the Inland Container Corporation, which was bought by Time Inc. in 1975.

The couple bequeathed shares of Time-Warner stock to five additional charitable organizations (The Chronicle, September 9). DePauw University, in Greencastle, Ind., received the largest portion — $128.5-million for scholarships.

Other recent gifts:

Albion College (Mich.): $4,000,000 from William Ferguson of Armonk, N.Y., retired chairman of NYNEX Corporation, and his wife, Joyce, to help construct a technology facility for students and administrators, and $3,000,000 from Roy Karro of Southfield, Mich., a retired vice-president of Solomon Smith Barney, for a new dormitory.

American Boychoir School (N.J.): $1,500,000 from Chester W. Douglass of Newton, Mass., chairman of the Department of Oral Health Policy and Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, for endowment.

Auburn U. (Ala.): $1,000,000 from Charles Barkley of Leeds, Ala., a member of the Houston Rockets basketball team, for scholarships for minority students.

Bethel College (Kan.): $2,500,000 from Fred A. Krehbiel of Hinsdale, Ill., chairman of the electronics company Molex, and his wife, Kay, to help construct a science facility.

Colorado School of Mines: $7,500,000 bequest from the estates of Cecil and Cleone B. Hansen of Monticello, Utah, who with her first husband, Joe Cooper, operated the Happy Jack Mine, to endow the Department of Mining Engineering.

Community Foundation of Central Georgia: $8,500,000 bequest from the estate of Catherine Stewart Jones of Macon, Ga., an elementary and high-school English teacher, for unrestricted endowment.

Cornerstone Schools of Alabama: $1,000,000 from Charles Barkley of Leeds, Ala., a member of the Houston Rockets basketball team, for undetermined use. Cornerstone Schools teaches inner-city youngsters in Birmingham, Ala., in kindergarten to eighth grade.

Curtis Institute of Music (Pa.): $1,000,000 each from Herbert Axelrod of Deal, N.J., an ichthyologist, to purchase instruments; Milton L. Rock of Philadelphia, chairman of MLR Publishing, to endow the archive facility; and Jack Wolgin of Philadelphia, a real-estate developer, to endow the Curtis Symphony Orchestra in Philadelphia. Mr. Axelrod has pledged an additional $1,000,000 if the institute can match the amount dollar for dollar by May 31, 2000.

Guilford College (N.C.): $2,000,000 from Joseph M. Bryan, Jr., of Greensboro, N.C., an investor, for unrestricted use.

Hawaii Theater Center: $1,000,000 from Henry A. Zuberano of Honolulu for its capital campaign.

Lenoir-Rhyne College (N.C.): $1,000,000 from Thomas A. Mott, Jr., of Hickory, N.C., co-founder of Southwest Airways, which merged with Southwest Airlines, for endowment.

Oklahoma City U.: $4,000,000 bequest from the estates of Owen Wimberly of Oklahoma City, chairman of two milling companies, and his wife, Vivian, for endowment.

Ouachita Baptist U. (Ark.): $4,500,000 from Frank Hickingbotham of Little Rock, Ark., chairman of the frozen-yogurt company TCBY, for the School of Business’s capital campaign.

Poly Prep Country Day School (N.Y.): $2,500,000 from an anonymous donor to build a science and technology center.

Saint John’s U. (N.Y.): $2,100,000 from Jayson Williams of East Rutherford, N.J., a member of the New Jersey Nets basketball team, to endow scholarships.

St. Bonaventure U. (N.Y.): $2,000,000 from Leslie C. Quick III of New York, president of Fleet Securities, and his wife, Eileen, to endow faculty development.

St. Mary’s U. (Tex.): $1,700,000 from an anonymous donor to help students at the School of Law take courses to help them pass the state bar examination.

State U. of New York at Buffalo: $1,000,000 from Peter H. Hare of Buffalo, a philosophy professor at the university, to endow operations and a professorship at the Department of Philosophy.

Trinity College (Conn.): $1,950,000 from Henry Zachs of Farmington, Conn., chief executive officer of ZipLink, an Internet-service provider, to construct the new Hillel House and to refurbish houses for Hispanic and Asian American students.

U. of Connecticut: $1,000,000 from Judith Zachs of Farmington, Conn., a social worker, and her husband, Henry, chief executive officer of Ziplink, an Internet-service provider, to establish a doctoral program in the School of Social Work.

U. of Miami: $5,000,000 from Theodore G. Schwartz of Deerfield, Ill., chief executive officer of APAC TeleServices, and his wife, Chris, a nurse, for the School of Nursing’s capital campaign.

U. of the Ozarks (Ark.): $2,000,000 bequest from the estate of Vera M. Pfeffer of Bella Vista, Ark., executive secretary to the oil executive L. H. Wentz, to provide low-interest student loans.

U. of Vermont: $1,000,000 from Charles Zabriskie, Jr., of Wellesley Hills, Mass., a retired acquisitions consultant, to increase the salaries of athletics coaches.

United Way/Crusade of Mercy (Ill.): $1,000,000 each from John Bryan, chairman of the Sara Lee Corporation, and his wife, Neville; Duane Burnham, chairman emeritus of Abbott Laboratories, and his wife, Susan; Lester Crown, chairman of Material Service Corporation, and his wife, Renee; J. Ira and Nicki Harris and their family; John McCoy, chairman of Bank One Corporation, and his wife, Jane; Andy McKenna, chairman of Schwarz, and his wife, Joanie; Dick Notebaert, chairman of Ameritech, and his wife, Peggy; Bill Osborn, chairman of Northern Trust Corporation, and his wife, Cathy; the Thomas J. Pritzker family; and Pat Ryan, chairman of Aon Corporation, and his wife, Shirley. All donors live in the Chicago area, and all gifts except one are designated for the annual fund; the Burnhams directed their gift for endowment.

Whitworth College (Wash.): $3,000,000 from anonymous donors and $1,000,000 from Charles L. Boppell of Los Angeles, chief executive officer of Sizzler International, and his wife, Karlyn, for the capital campaign.

Wyoming Seminary (Pa.): $4,100,000 bequest from the estate of Lucille Donchess of Lake San Marcos, Cal., widow of Joseph Donchess, former chief surgeon at U.S. Steel, for unrestricted use.