Natural-History Museum Receives $20-Million Pledge; Other Gifts

Three institutions have received big gifts:

• The American Museum of Natural History, in New York, received an unrestricted pledge of $20-million from David H. Koch. The money will support the museum’s research and science programs, especially those that focus on evolution and paleontology. Mr. Koch is an executive vice president at Koch Industries, an investment company based in Wichita, Kan., that was founded by his father, Fred C. Koch. He has been a board member at the museum for 15 years and works in New York.

• Purdue University, in West Lafayette, Ind., received a gift of 40 acres of land in New Albany, Ind., valued at $10.8-million, from John Shine and the Shine family. Mr. Shine is president of Samtec, an electronics-manufacturing company, in New Albany. A technology park will be built on the land, and will contain classrooms and offices for entrepreneurship programs.

• Mike Curb, chairman and owner of Curb Records, in Nashville, has pledged $10-million to California State University at Northridge. Half of the money will help build the Imagine the Arts Center, a regional performing-arts venue set to open in 2009. The remaining $5-million will endow the university’s College of Arts, Media, and Communication, including $1-million for a professorship in music-industry studies. Mr. Curb began studying at the university in 1962, but he left before graduating to pursue his music career. He also served as lieutenant governor of California from 1979 to 1983.

Other recent gifts:

College of Saint Benedict (St. Joseph, Minn.): $3.5-million from Benedict and Dorothy Gorecki, owners of Gorecki Manufacturing, in Milaca, Minn., to construct a new dining and conference center. The Goreckis’ granddaughter, Carrie, graduated from the college in 2003.

Gesu School (Philadelphia): $2-million from H.F. (Gerry) Lenfest, founder of Lenfest Communications, in Wilmington, Del., and chair of the Lenfest Foundation, in West Conshohocken, Pa., and his wife, Marguerite, to support the early-childhood center; and $2-million from Jay Sherrerd, a co-founder and retired partner of Miller Anderson and Sherrerd, an investment-counseling firm in West Conshohocken that was acquired by Morgan Stanley in 1996, to help build a new gymnasium.

Miami U. School of Business (Oxford, Ohio): $1-million from Higgin Kim, chief executive officer of the Byucksan Engineering and Construction Company, in Seoul, South Korea, to establish an Asian-business program. Mr. Kim graduated from the university in 1969, and is the president of the alumni association in Korea.

National Marine Life Center (Buzzards Bay, Mass.): $2-million bequest from Townsend Hornor, a retired investment banker at White, Weld & Company, in New York, to build a marine-animal hospital. Mr. Horner, who co-founded the center with his late wife, Elizabeth, died last September at age 78.

National Parkinson Foundation (Miami): $1-million unrestricted bequest from Mary Joan Palevsky, former wife of Max Palevsky, a co-founder of Intel, in Santa Clara, Calif. Ms. Palevsky, who lived in Los Angeles, died in March at age 80.

Purdue U. (West Lafayette, Ind.): $1.5-million from Fred M. Fehsenfeld Sr., chairman of the executive committee of the Heritage Group, in Indianapolis, to support a professorship in energy. Mr. Fehsenfeld graduated from the univeristy in 1948 with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering.

Rivier College (Nashua, N.H.): $2-million pledge from William Conway, founder of Conway Management Company, a management-consulting firm, in Nashua; his wife, Jane; and their family. The money will be used to build an addition to the college’s library.

Sam Houston State U. (Huntsville, Tex.): $2-million from Dan Rather, a former anchor of CBS Evening News, and his wife, Jean, to endow undergraduate scholarships and to support communications programs. Mr. Rather graduated from the university in 1953 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism.

School of American Research (Santa Fe, N.M.): $7-million unrestricted pledge from Susan L. Foote, the outgoing chair of the Board of Managers. The money will add to the endowment and provide operational support.

St. Andrew’s-Sewanee School (Tenn.): $1.5-million from Martha McCrory, founder and retired director of the Sewanee Summer Music Center, to build a performing-arts center.

State U. of New York at Oswego: $1-million pledge from Marcia Belmar Willock, an investor in Cumberland-Foreside, Me., to endow a professorship in finance. Ms. Willock graduated from the university in 1950 with a degree in elementary education.

U. of Michigan Depression Center (Ann Arbor): $2-million from Phil F. Jenkins, founder and chief executive officer of Sweepster, an industrial-cleaning equipment company in Dexter, Mich., to endow a professorship in depression in the university’s department of psychiatry and establish a research fund for Dr. Jon-Kar Zubieta, who will be the first to receive the professorship.

U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Law: $2-million pledge from Michael Cucchiara and his wife, Marty Hayes, investors residing in Chapel Hill. The money will be used to endow expenses and operations at the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity.

U. of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia): $1-million from Harold Berger, senior partner and managing principal of Berger & Montague, a law firm in Philadelphia, and his wife, Renee, to support the law school’s annual fund and to enhance facilities at the school of engineering and the law school. Mr. Berger graduated from the university in 1951. An additional $1-million was given to the Wharton School by Natan Peisach, chairman of Hilanderia Fontibon, a textile-manufacturing company in Bogota, Colombia, and his wife, Lidia, to build classrooms, a library, and a study center. Mr. Peisach graduated from the business school in 1961.

U. of Rochester Medical Center (N.Y.): $1-million from Jack A. Erdle, founder of the Eldre Corporation, an electronics-manufacuring company in Henrietta, N.Y., and his wife, Norma, to support stem-cell research.

U. of Washington Business School (Seattle): $4.5-million from Orin Smith, a retired president and chief executive officer of Starbucks, in Seattle, to build new facilities. Mr. Smith graduated from the business school in 1965.

Vassar College (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.): $5.5-million from Mary Lee Lowe Dayton to renovate the Mildred R. Wimpfheimer Nursery School, an early-childhood-education research facility. Ms. Dayton graduated from the college in 1946 with a degree in child study. Her late husband, Wallace C. Dayton, was president of Dayton Development Company, which ran a retail chain that became Target, based in Minneapolis.

Western New England College (Springfield, Mass.): $1-million from Kevin S. Delbridge, senior managing director of HarbourVest Partners, a private-equity investment firm in Boston. The gift is still unallocated, but some of it is expected to support financial-aid programs. Mr. Delbridge graduated from the college in 1977 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration.