San Diego Theater Receives $20-Million From Inventor; Other New Gifts

Three institutions have received big gifts:

• Donald and Darlene Shiley have given $20-million to the Old Globe Theatre, in San Diego, for endowment and artistic expenses. Mr. Shiley is co-inventor of Pfizer’s Bjork-Shiley heart valve and retired owner of Shiley Inc., a medical-device manufacturer in Irvine, Calif. Ms. Shiley is a former member of the theater’s board. Although the group plans to name its stage for the couple, the Shileys stipulated that the entire theater continue under its current name as long as it exists.

• William H. Neukom, chairman of the law firm Preston Gates & Ellis, in Seattle, and former executive vice president of law and corporate affairs at the Microsoft Corporation, in Redmond, Wash., has pledged $20-million to Stanford Law School, in Calif., to build a new academic building. Mr. Neukom is a 1967 graduate of the law school, and a member of the law school’s Board of Visitors Executive Committee.

• Miami University, in Oxford, Ohio, has received a $10-million bequest from Lois Klawon, a retired administrative assistant from Cleveland who died in 2005. The money, which represents about half of Ms. Klawon’s estate, will go toward student scholarships. She graduated from the university in 1939.

Other recent gifts:

Ashland U. (Ohio): $5-million from Dwight C. Schar, chairman and chief executive officer of NVR, a home-building and mortgage-banking company in Reston, Va., for a new building for the College of Education. Mr. Schar graduated from the university in 1964 and served on its Board of Trustees from 1985 to 1997. The university plans to name the college and the new building after Mr. Schar.

Boston U.: $1.25-million from Jeffrey Katzenberg, co-founder of DreamWorks Studios SKG and chief executive officer and director of DreamWorks Animation SKG, in Glendale, Calif., and his wife, Marilyn, to renovate and upgrade facilities and equipment for the photojournalism program in the College of Communication. The money will also be used to create a center where students can learn high-definition television production in the college’s Department of Film and Television and to renovate the study area in the College of General Studies. The Katzenbergs’ children attended the two colleges.

California Institute of the Arts (Valencia): $5-million from Richard Seaver, chairman of the Hydril Company, a Los Angeles company that manufactures petroleum drilling and production tools. Most of the donation, $4-million, will establish a scholarship fund for students and the rest will go toward other programs. Mr. Seaver has served as a trustee since 1992.

City of Hope Cancer Center (Duarte, Calif.): $1.5-million bequest from Marcelle S. Schwartz, a travel agent in Los Angeles, for cancer research focused on the immune system. Ms. Schwartz, who fought breast cancer in her lifetime, died in 2004.

Harvard U., John F. Kennedy School of Government (Cambridge, Mass.): $1.5-million from Barbara Lee, of Cambridge, to endow the Women in U.S. Politics Training Program and Lecture Series, which she helped establish in 2004 with a $40,000 grant from her foundation. Ms. Lee helped produce the Governor’s Guidebook Series, and is the former wife of Thomas Lee, a businessman known for conducting high-profile leveraged buyouts.

Hofstra U. (Hempstead, N.Y.): $6-million from John D. Miller, the co-founder and a retired chief executive officer of Arterial Vascular Engineering, a Santa Rosa, Calif., company that manufactures medical equipment, for the Honors College. Mr. Miller is chair of Hofstra’s Board of Trustees, and a 1979 graduate of its School of Business.

Kansas State U. Foundation (Manhattan): $4.3-million bequest from Mary Jarvis, of Omaha, to expand the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art at Kansas State University. Ms. Jarvis graduated from the university in 1942 and was the first woman there to receive a bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture. She died in 2004.

La Sierra U. (Riverside, Calif.): $5-million from Weldon Schumacher, a physician in Lodi, Calif., and his wife, Joan, to pay for new science buildings. The university plans to name the new science complex for the couple, who graduated from La Sierra in 1958 and 1956 respectively. The Schumachers operate a large cherry orchard in Lodi.

Miami U. (Oxford, Ohio): $6.7-million from William Mayhall, a retired chairman and chief executive officer of Rollins Leasing Corporation, a truck-rental company in Manassas, Va., for unrestricted use in the Farmer School of Business. The university also received $1-million from David Burr, a retired president and chief executive officer of Princeton Financial Systems, for unrestricted use. Mr. Mayhall graduated from the university in 1969, and Mr. Burr in 1957.

Museum of Broadcast Communications (Chicago): $1.5-million from Paul Harvey, a syndicated ABC Radio Network newscaster based in Chicago, and his wife, Lynne (Angel) Harvey, who also works at ABC Radio Network, for the museum’s new building.

Old Globe Theatre (San Diego): $5-million from Donald Cohn, founder and a retired chief executive officer of DataQuick Information Systems, in San Diego, and his wife, Karen. Ms. Cohn, co-owner with her husband of Cohn Enterprises, a real-estate development company in San Diego, is a former board chairwoman of the theater. The money will go toward education programs and facilities. The theater also received $3-million from its current board chairwoman, Kathryn Hattox, a real-estate investor and estate lawyer in San Diego, for endowment and facilities, and $1-million from Harvey White, the retired co-founder of Qualcomm and a retired chief executive officer of Leap Wireless, in San Diego, and his wife, Sheryl, for endowment.

U. of Iowa Foundation (Iowa City): $5-million from Lucille A. Carver, of Muscatine, Iowa, for the university’s Carver Family Center for Macular Degeneration. Ms. Carver gave the foundation $5-million in February to establish the center, a nonprofit genetic-testing laboratory that plans to develop a test for every gene known to cause a hereditary eye disease. The foundation also received a joint $2.5-million donation from Leo Hauser and Gary and Camille Seamans for an endowed professorship in molecular ophthalmology at the Carver Center. Gary Seamans is a retired chief executive officer of Westell Technologies, an Aurora, Ill., company that manufactures telecommunications products, and Camille Seamans is a former human-resources director at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, in Chicago. Mr. Hauser is the retired co-founder of Trendmasters, a St. Louis toy company.

U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: $1-million jointly from George G. Beasley, chairman and chief executive officer of the Beasley Broadcast Group, in Naples, Fla., and Donald W. Curtis, founder of the Curtis Media group, in Raleigh, N.C., to help renovate Memorial Hall, the university’s main performing-arts auditorium. Mr. Curtis graduated from the university; Mr. Beasley did not attend Chapel Hill, but his children are alumni.

Wellesley College (Mass.): $2.7-million bequest from Virginia Webbert, who was an intelligence-research analyst who served as the Commerce Department’s Indonesian desk officer, for financial aid for students majoring in economics or music. Ms. Webbert, a 1935 Wellesley graduate who lived in Washington, died in 2004.

Zoological Society of Florida (Miami): $3.5-million from Cynthia Knight, owner and president of Landon Knight Stable and a race-horse breeder in Miami and Ohio, for the new Tropical America exhibit at the Miami Metrozoo. The society also received $1-million from Kirk Landon, a retired chairman and chief executive officer of American Bankers Insurance Group, in Miami, for the exhibit, which is scheduled to open next year.