Museum to Get $50-Million; Other Gifts

Two institutions have received big gifts:

• The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, in Kansas City, Mo., has received a $50-million pledge from three of its trustees: Henry W. Bloch, honorary chairman and co-founder of H&R Block, and his wife, Marion; Don Hall, chairman of Hallmark, and his wife, Adele; and Estelle Sosland and her husband, Morton, chairman of Sosland Publishing. All three companies are located in Kansas City. The money, a matching gift, will go toward the museum’s operating endowment and will be paid over five years.
• Carl H. and Edyth Lindner and their son Craig and his wife, Frances, have pledged $30-million to help the University of Cincinnati establish and support a behavioral-health center in Mason, Ohio. The center will be jointly managed by the Lindner Foundation and the Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati. Carl Lindner is the founder of the American Financial Group, in Cincinnati, where Craig Lindner serves as co-chief executive officer.

Other recent gifts:

California Lutheran U. (Thousand Oaks): $5-million from Jack Gilbert, chairman of the Told Corporation, a commercial real-estate company in Woodland Hills, Calif., and his wife, Carol, to pay for a new president’s residence and campus programs.

Dickinson College (Carlisle, Pa.): $1.5-million bequest from Jean Louise Stellfox, who taught English at a high school in Shamokin, Pa., to pay for writers to speak at the college. Ms. Stellfox, who died in 2003, made her money from investments.

Duke U. (Durham, N.C.): $6-million from Aubrey McClendon, co-founder and chief executive officer of the Chesapeake Energy Corporation, a company that produces natural gas, in Oklahoma City, Okla., and his wife, Katie. The couple have stipulated that the money be used to build an outdoor plaza, pay for a new pipe organ for the divinity school’s chapel, and help support annual funds for the Fuqua School of Business and Trinity College. Mr. and Ms. McClendon are graduates of the university.

High Point U. (N.C.): $5.8-million from an anonymous donor to construct a new dormitory.

The Johns Hopkins U. (Baltimore): $1.3-million from Boone Pickens, chief executive officer of BP Capital Management, in Dallas, and Mesa Water, in Dallas, for a professorship of ophthalmology at the Wilmer Eye Institute. The university also received $1-million from Ronald Nordmann for a scholarship fund at the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences. Mr. Nordmann, of Loveladies, N.J., is a 1963 graduate of Johns Hopkins and co-president of Global Health Associates, which provides consulting services to life-sciences companies.

Kansas State U. Foundation (Manhattan): $1.7-million bequest from Lillian J. Brychta and her brother, Edwin G. Brychta, to endow a scholarship and a professorship in the biology division. Ms. Brychta, who died in 1992, and Mr. Brychta, who died in 2003, were both schoolteachers in Blue Rapids, Kan., and graduates of the university.

Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network (Allentown, Pa.): Farmland valued at approximately $8.3-million from Charles Kasych Jr., a businessman in Allentown, and his sister, Anna Kasych, of Whitehall Township, Pa. The hospital plans to sell the land and use the money to construct a patient tower.

Long Center for the Performing Arts (Austin, Tex.): $2.5-million from Kevin Rollins, chief executive officer of Dell, in Round Rock, Tex., and his wife, Debbie, to help construct the theater complex. Mr. Rollins serves on the center’s board.

Moravian College (Bethlehem, Pa.): $1.5-million from Priscilla Payne Hurd, chair of the college’s Board of Trustees, to establish an endowment for student-faculty research.

Northwest Missouri State U. (Maryville): $1-million bequest from Ben Porter, who was a farmer in Cameron, Mo., and his wife, Allene, a former teacher, for scholarships in the College of Education and Human Services. Mr. Porter died in 1997 and Ms. Porter, who graduated from the university in 1941, died in 2002.

Peninsula Community Foundation (San Mateo, Calif.): $5-million from Bernard Newcomb, a co-founder of E*Trade, the online brokerage-service company, in Palo Alto, Calif., to establish the Newcomb Family Endowment Fund.

Pittsburg State U. (Kan.): $1.8-million bequest from Edwin G. Brychta, a schoolteacher in Blue Rapids, Kan., for scholarships. Mr. Brychta, who received a master’s degree from the university in 1936, died in 2003.

Ripon College (Wis.): $2.7-million bequest from Harrison E. Farnsworth, a 1918 graduate of the college, to establish a professorship in physics. Mr. Farnsworth served more than four decades as a physics professor at Brown U., in Providence, R.I. He died in 1989, and his wife, Peggy, died in 2002.

Saginaw Valley State U. Foundation (University Center, Mich.): $3-million pledge from E. Malcolm Field, a neurosurgeon in Saginaw, Mich., to endow a health-sciences chair and a professorship in engineering. Mr. Field serves on the foundation’s board.

U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: $2-million from Peter Fox, a real-estate developer in Champaign, and his wife, Kim, to support four professorships, with priority given to professors whose work helps promote local business growth.

U. of Kansas (Lawrence): $6.4-million from Dolph C. Simons Jr., chairman of the World Company, a media company in Lawrence, and his family, for the Kansas University Endowment Charitable Gift Fund. A portion of the gift, $2.1-million, will go to the university, and the remainder will be distributed in the future according to the family’s wishes.

U. of Wisconsin at Milwaukee: $2-million pledge from Robert McColl and Suzanne Ecke McColl for the American Geographical Society Library, which is housed at the university. Mr. McColl is a professor emeritus of geography and East Asian studies at the U. of Kansas, in Lawrence.