Northwestern Gets $40-Million; Other Gifts

Four organizations have received big gifts.

* Ann Lurie, widow of the real-estate developer Robert H. Lurie, has given $40-million to Northwestern University, in Evanston, Ill., to establish a medical-research center.

The new facility, which will be located on the university’s Chicago campus, is expected to cost $200-million and will include space for laboratories and offices. Ms. Lurie is a member of Northwestern’s Board of Trustees.

* A donor wishing to remain anonymous has pledged $15-million to Houghton College, in N.Y., to establish a master’s-degree program in music. Officials expect to admit students into the new program in 2004.

* Mike Hatfield, founder of the telecommunications company Calix Networks, has given $10-million to the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, in Terre Haute, Ind., to construct and maintain an auditorium and alumni center. The facility is scheduled to open in fall 2001.

* A Southern California couple have given $10-million to Saddleback Memorial Medical Center, in Laguna Hills.

William and Louise Meiklejohn directed the donation to help build a critical-care facility. Mr. Meiklejohn is retired from the electronics division at Northrop Grumman. His father, Joseph, was a founder of United Parcel Service.

Other recent gifts: Alaska Conservation Foundation: $1,000,000 from Lowell Thomas Jr. of Anchorage, former lieutenant governor of Alaska and a former state senator, for endowment.

Angelo State U. (Tex.): $1,000,000 from F. L. (Steve) Stephens of San Angelo, Tex., retired co-owner of Town & Country Food Stores, and his wife, Pollyanna, for capital needs.

Berkshire Farm Center and Services for Youth (N.Y.): $1,500,000 bequest from Thomas Randall of Canaan, N.Y., a merchant marine and an investor in Exxon, for a vocational-education academy for boys aged 18 and older.

California State U. at Channel Islands: $5,000,000 from John S. Broome of Oxnard, Calif., a rancher, to help construct a library.

California State U. at Northridge: $1,500,000 from Abbott Brown of Los Angeles, senior vice president of Global Crossing, and his wife, Linda, to endow an aquatic-therapy facility at the Center of Achievement for the Physically Disabled, and $1,000,000 from Alan Armer of Los Angeles, a television writer and producer who taught at the university, to build a screening room.

Cape Cod Academy (Mass.): $2,000,000 and $1,000,000, respectively, from two anonymous donors, to construct classrooms.

Conservation International (D.C.): $5,000,000 from the actor Harrison Ford and his wife, the screenwriter Melissa Mathison, of Jackson Hole, Wyo., for the organization’s “Save the Hotspots” campaign. The gift must be matched dollar for dollar by donations that are pledged over three years.

Illinois Wesleyan U.: $2,000,000 from Tom O. Hansen of Louisville, Ky., chief executive officer of Accent Marketing Services, and his family, to help build a student center.

Jewish Theological Seminary (N.Y.): $1,500,000 from E. Billi Ivry of New York, a professor of Jewish studies at Yeshiva U., for a professorship in Talmud and rabbinic culture, and $1,000,000 from David Ravich of Boca Raton, Fla., a retired businessman, and his wife, Elaine, to endow a professorship in Jewish studies.

The Johns Hopkins U. (Md.): $3,000,000 from Ralph S. O’Connor of Houston, an investment adviser, to help build a recreation center at the Homewood campus and to endow scholarships at the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, and a $1,200,000 bequest from the estate of Jean Akehurst of Baltimore, a nurse, for capital needs at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Johnson & Wales U. (R.I.): $1,600,000 from John Hazen White Sr. of Cranston, R.I., his wife, Happy, and their son, John Jr., president of the heating company Taco Inc., to purchase a building for business studies and the arts and sciences.

Marquette U. (Wis.): $1,000,000 from Wayne Holt of Elm Grove, Wis., retired vice president of equipment at Sullivan Dental Products, to help renovate the School of Dentistry.

Monmouth College (Ill.): $1,000,000 bequest from the estate of Keith B. Capron of Colorado Springs, an assistant to the publisher Robert R. McCormick at the Chicago Tribune, to renovate Hewes Library.

Niagara U. (N.Y.): $1,000,000 from Richard F. Chapdelaine of New York, a securities broker, for the capital campaign.

Penn State U. (Pa.): $5,000,000 from Douglas L. Rock of Houston, chairman of Smith International, which manufactures products to drill gas and oil wells, to create an ethics institute at the College of the Liberal Arts.

Southern U. and Agricultural and Mechanical College (La.): $1,000,000 each from Peter Moncrieffe and W. E. Tucker of Baton Rouge, La., former radio-station owners, to endow professorships and scholarships.

State U. of New York at Binghamton: $1,000,000 from Gary Kunis of Seattle, a vice president of technology at Cisco Systems, and his wife, Natasha, for scholarships and technology.

Trinity Christian College (Ill.): $2,000,000 from an anonymous donor to help construct a new science and technology building.

U. of Alaska at Fairbanks: $2,000,000 bequest from Fred Kubon of Sequim, Wash., a miner and a former mayor of Nome, Alaska, to endow scholarships at the School of Mineral Engineering.

U. of Arkansas: $1,600,000 bequest from the estate of Etna McGaugh Atkinson of Little Rock, former chair of the home-economics department at Auburn U., to endow the library, and $1,150,000 from George Billingsley of Bella Vista, Ark., chairman of Pacific Resources Export Limited, and his wife, Boyce, to endow music programs.

U. of California at Irvine: $8,100,000 from Allen Chao of Corona, Calif., chief executive officer of Watson Pharmaceuticals, and his family, for research on the genetics of cancer at the College of Medicine.

U. of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas: $2,000,000 from Christa Overcash of Dallas, widow of Reece Overcash, former chairman of Associates Corp. of North America, and their family, for research on breast cancer and colon cancer.

U. of Washington: $3,000,000 from Neal Dempsey of Cupertino, Calif., general partner at the venture-capital firm Bay Partners, for technology at the Business School, and $2,000,000 from Ravi Desai of Ithaca, N.Y., president of Logical Informational Machines, to endow a poet-in-residence program and graduate fellowships in the creative-writing program.

Washington State U.: $2,500,000 bequest from the estate of Mildred Bissinger of Kentfield, Calif., a high-school English teacher, to endow the philosophy department, the Museum of Art, and the libraries’ Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections.

Wayne State U. (Mich.): $2,000,000 from Maggie Allesee of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., a philanthropist and the wife of Detroit radio talk-show host Bob Allison, for several programs at the Department of Dance.

Westminster School (Conn.): $1,000,000 from Bernard (Buz) Kohn Jr. of Bloomfield, Conn., an investment adviser, and his family, to build a squash pavilion.