Seattle Children’s Hospital Lands a $60 Million Gift, Cedars-Sinai $50 million

A roundup of notable gifts compiled by The Chronicle:

Seattle Children’s Hospital

Bruce Leven left approximately $60 million to endow patient care for needy families, including pediatric cancer care. The funds will also support the Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic, which provides medical, dental, and mental-health services for low-income families.

Leven, who died in 2017, was a businessman and competitive race-car driver in Washington State. He operated and expanded Bayside Disposal, a waste and scrap-hauling business, and later founded Bayside Auto Group.

Brown University

University chancellor Samuel Mencoff, and his wife, Ann, donated $50 million for the Warren Alpert Medical School to support biomedical research and the development of new treatments and cures for disease.

Of the total, half will go toward establishing endowed professorships and backing the work of researchers — including laboratory scientists, physicians, and scholars. The remaining $25 million will support medical education and research.

Samuel Mencoff is a founding partner of Madison Dearborn Partners, a private-equity firm in Chicago. He earned a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Brown in 1978.

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

Eric and Susan Smidt gave $50 million through their Smidt Foundation to create the Smidt Heart Institute. The gift will help the hospital expand its research and treatment of heart conditions.

Eric Smidt founded Harbor Freight Tools, a discount tool and equipment retailer. He also started Harbor Freight Tools for Schools, a nonprofit program that backs the advancement of skilled-trades education in U.S. public high schools.

University of California at San Diego

Richard Krupp left charitable trusts and assets valued at roughly $30 million to create the Krupp Endowed Fund to support research on the use of a healthy diet and natural medicine in the prevention and treatment of significant health problems.

Krupp, who died in 2015, ran a property-management business. He suffered from severe asthma as a child and later immersed himself in reading the works of popular health and nutrition authors. His research led him to change his diet and focus on nutrition and the use of natural therapeutics, including herbs, vitamins, and minerals, to improve his health.

Foundation for Abington School District

Billionaire financier Stephen Schwarzman gave $25 million for Abington High School, his alma mater. The money will go toward renovating the school and building a new science and technology center.

Part of the donation will be used to revamp the curriculum with required classes in computer science and coding and to expand career counseling so students can start exploring career interests earlier in their education.

Schwarzman co-founded Blackstone, a private-equity and asset-management firm. He has given extensively to education and other causes in recent years and has appeared on the Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50 list of the biggest donors three times.

Harvard University

James Swartz and Susan Shallcross Swartz donated $25 million for the Divinity School to renovate Andover Hall, the school’s main building.

James Swartz co-founded the venture capital firms Accel and Adler & Company. He earned a bachelor’s degree at Harvard in 1964. Susan Shallcross Swartz is a contemporary artist.

Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago

Robert and Joan Feitler gave $5 million to create the Feitler Center for Academic Inquiry, a new institute where students and scholars from across the university can study original artworks and art history.

Robert Feitler retired as president of the Weyco Group, a men’s footwear manufacturer, in 1996. Both of his parents attended the university, and he attended the university’s Laboratory Schools from first grade on.

Joan Feitler earned a master’s degree in sociology at the university in 1955 and worked as a research analyst at Social Research, a company co-founded by university professor Burleigh Gardner to apply social-science techniques to solve business problems.

To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated throughout the week.