New York Arts Center Receives $25-Million From Bookstore-Chain CEO; Other Big Gifts

Several nonprofit organizations have received large gifts:

* The Dia Center for the Arts, in New York, has received $25-million from Leonard and Louise Riggio, of New York. Mr. Riggio is chairman of Dia’s board and chief executive officer of Barnes & Noble. The gift will finance acquisitions, maintenance of outdoor art installations, and construction of a museum in Beacon, N.Y., to house the center’s collection of large installations.

* Syracuse University, in New York, has received a $20-million unrestricted gift from a trustee who wishes to remain anonymous. The university has not yet decided how it will use the funds.

* Alan I. Casden, a real-estate developer, has given $10.6-million to the University of Southern California, in Los Angeles. The money will establish the Alan Casden Dean’s Chair at the Leventhal School of Accounting, endow the Casden Institute for the Study of the Jewish Role in American Life, and support research at the Lusk Center for Real Estate.

Mr. Casden, who graduated from the Leventhal School in 1968, founded the residential-property developer Casden Properties, in Beverly Hills.

* Don and Marilyn Gevirtz, of Santa Barbara, Calif., have given $10-million to the University of California at Santa Barbara and designated it for programs to improve education. The gift will support collaborations with practitioners, research, and financial aid at the Graduate School of Education, which will be named for the couple.

Mr. Gevirtz co-founded the Foothill Group, a commercial finance company, and served as U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Fiji, the Republic of Nauru, the Kingdom of Tonga, and Tuvalu in 1996-97. Mrs. Gevirtz is a trustee of the U.C.S.B. Foundation.

Other recent gifts:

California State U. System (Long Beach): $1.2-million from Stanley T. Wang, of Los Altos Hills, Calif., founder of Pantronix Corporation, a semiconductor producer in Fremont, Calif., to establish a program that will provide scholarships and stipends for students and faculty to study, teach, or perform research at universities in China.

Chapman U. (Orange, Calif.): $4-million from Doy Henley, of Tustin, Calif., founder of Aeromil Corporation, in Santa Ana, Calif., a manufacturer of aircraft components, and his wife, Dee, to help build a new university library and a new residence hall that will be named for the couple.

Colorado State U. (Fort Collins): $3-million gift, to be paid over five years, from Charles R. and Lucia H. Shipley of Auburndale, Mass., founders of the Shipley Company, a chemical supplier, in Newton, Mass., to help build a new facility for the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and to establish the Shipley Center for Complementary Medicine and Natural Healing at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital.

Duke U. (Durham, N.C.): $2-million from the family of Lester Crown, of Chicago, chairman of Material Service Corporation, a producer of stone, sand, and gravel, and from the family of Charles Goodman, the Crown family’s principal financial adviser, to finance the Lester Crown University Professorship in Ethics.

Hobart and William Smith Colleges (Geneva, N.Y.): $1-million from the family of Philip J. Moorad, a physician in New Britain, Conn., who died in 1998, for the Philip J. Moorad 28 and Margaret N. Moorad Professorship in the Sciences, in honor of the late Dr. Moorad and his wife.

Hollins U. (Roanoke, Va.): $1-million from Kathryn O’Keeffe of Santa Fe, N.M., a 1939 graduate of the university, to establish the O’Keeffe Chair in Communications Studies.

Kansas State U. (Manhattan): $2-million pledge from Louise C. Averill of Mission Hills, Kan., whose late husband was a cardiovascular surgeon, to establish the Louise C. Averill Research Chair for feline diseases at the College of Veterinary Medicine.

Louisburg College (N.C.): $1.5-million bequest from Virginia Waddell Hudgins, of Louisburg, who died in 1999 at age 93, for endowment, building renovations, and Learning Partners, a tutorial program for students with learning disabilities.

Nazareth College (Rochester, N.Y.): $1.5-million in an unrestricted bequest from Marjorie Loos, of Pittsford, N.Y., an alumna whose late husband was a vice president at Rochester Gas & Electric, for new academic and athletic programs and the construction and renovation of campus buildings.

Ohio U. (Athens): $5-million from Robert Walter, of Columbus, Ohio, founder of Cardinal Health, in Dublin, Ohio, a provider of health-care products and services, and his wife, Peggy McGreevey Walter, to help build a high-tech classroom facility.

Texas A&M U. (College Station): $1-million from Harold J. (Bill) Haynes, of Fairfax, Calif., former chief executive officer of the Chevron Corporation, and his wife, Reta, to endow two chairs in the College of Geosciences.

U. of Florida (Gainesville): $3.2-million from David Cofrin, of Gainesville, Fla., a retired physician, and his wife, Mary Ann, to build an addition to the Harn Museum of Art that will include a sculpture atrium.

U. of Kansas (Kansas City): $7-million pledge from Forrest Hoglund, of Dallas, chief executive officer of Arctic Resources Company, which plans to pipe natural gas from Alaska to the continental United States, and his wife, Sally Roney Hoglund. The couple designated $4-million to build and equip the Hoglund Brain Imaging Center at the university’s Medical Center, and the remaining $3-million for projects at the Medical Center to be determined by the donors.

U. of Massachusetts (Amherst): $2.5-million bequest from Mildred Barber, a former economist at the U.S. Department of Labor, in Washington, who died in October at age 78, to endow an economics chair in honor of her mother, Helen Sheridan.

U. of Missouri at Columbia: $1.5-million from David O’Neal, of Hillsborough, Calif., founder of the investment firm First San Francisco Corporation, in Hillsborough, and his wife, Judy, to endow two professorships at the School of Business; and $1-million from Robert J. Trulaske Sr., of St. Louis, chief executive officer of True Manufacturing Company, and his wife, Gerry, to expand the Robert J. Trulaske Sr. Endowed Scholarship Program, founded by the couple in 1997.

U. of Notre Dame (Ind.): $1-million pledge from Philip J. Faccenda, former vice president of the university, to endow a faculty chair for a priest in the Congregation of the Holy Cross; and $1-million from Jordan H. Kapson, founder of Jordan Automotive Group, in Mishawaka, Ind., to endow a professorship in Jewish studies.

Weber State U. (Ogden, Utah): $4.5-million unrestricted endowment gift from Edmund W. Dumke, of Las Vegas, Ezekiel R. Dumke Jr., of Salt Lake City, and Martha Ann Healy, of Chevy Chase, Md., in honor of their father, Ezekiel R. Dumke Sr., of Salt Lake City, for whom the university will rename its College of Health Professions.