St. Louis Symphony Gets a Pledge of $40-Million; Other Recent Gifts

Numerous nonprofit groups have received large gifts:

* The St. Louis Symphony has received a pledge of up to $40-million from Jack Taylor, founder of Enterprise Rent-A-Car, in St. Louis, and several of his family members.

The Taylor family will match up to $35-million raised within four years to increase the symphony’s endowment, which currently totals $22-million. In addition, the Taylors will match $5-million in gifts raised within one year to finance operating expenses.

Joining Mr. Taylor in the pledge were his son, Andrew C. Taylor, chief executive officer of Enterprise; Andrew’s wife, Barbara; and Jack Taylor’s daughter, Jo Ann Kindle, president of the Enterprise Rent-A-Car Foundation.

* Harvard University has received $25-million from Charles T. (Ted) Bauer, a co-founder of the Houston investment company AIM Management Group. The gift will finance construction of the Bauer Life Sciences Building, which will house the Bauer Center for Genomics Research. Mr. Bauer graduated from Harvard in 1942.

* Frank and Wynnette Levinson, of Palo Alto, Calif., have pledged $20-million to the University of Virginia to expand its astronomy department and to establish the Center for Religion and Democracy, an interdisciplinary research center. Mr. Levinson, who received his doctorate in astronomy from the university, founded Finisar Corporation, a fiber-optic communications company.

* The founder of Kinko’s, Paul J. Orfalea, and his family have committed a total of $18-million to two California institutions.

The Orfaleas will give $15-million to California Polytechnic State University, in San Luis Obispo. Of that total, $10-million was earmarked to establish the Orfalea Family Endowment for Excellence in the College of Business, to support new academic programs in entrepreneurship, globalization, and technology.

The remainder was designated as a pledge to endow new professorships. The family will match up to $5-million raised from other sources.

The Montecito, Calif., family also gave $3-million to Westmont College, in Santa Barbara, to endow a scholarship fund for students who need financial help.

Other recent gifts:

Battle Creek Community Foundation (Mich.):

$2-million gift from the estate of Raymond E. McCrary, of Battle Creek, who was a self-employed manufacturers’ representative, and his late wife, Olive E. McCrary, a secretary, to support scholarships and the endowments of the Binder Park Zoo and the Humane Society-Calhoun Area.

Clemson U. (S.C.): $2.7-million unrestricted trust pledged by Leighton M. Cubbage, of Greenville, S.C., co-owner of the Carolina Rhinos arena football team, to be used for renovation of the university’s athletic facilities.

College of Saint Rose (Albany, N.Y.): $2-million unrestricted gift from trustee Carl E. Touhey, of Feura Bush, N.Y., president of Orange Motor Group, in Albany, to construct a new School of Education.

Ferrum College (Va.): $1-million pledge from Col. Earl G. (Bud) Skeens, assistant professor of history at the college since 1964, for scholarships and other programs to be determined.

Holy Cross Hospital (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.): pledge of up to $6-million from Jim Moran, founder of the automotive company JM Family Enterprises, in Deerfield Beach, Fla., and his wife, Jan, to help build the Jim Moran Heart and Vascular Center. Mr. Moran has pledged to provide the full amount if the hospital raises $5-million from other sources.

Marist College (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.): $5-million pledge from Ellen M. Hancock, a college trustee and chairman of Exodus Communications, a Santa Clara, Calif., company that provides Internet services, to establish the Hancock Center for Emerging Technologies, where students will learn about and experiment with new forms of information technology.

Ohio State U. (Columbus): $3-million from Thomas L. Parker, of Upper Arlington, Ohio, retired chairman of Big Drum, a packaging manufacturer, to construct the Parker Food Science and Technology Building, which will house the university’s food-science programs, and to create an endowment to support research, financial aid, student organizations, and visiting lecturers.

Peace College (Raleigh, N.C.): $1.5-million bequest from Virginia Waddell Hudgins, of Louisburg, N.C., who died in 1999 at age 93, for endowment.

Pennsylvania State U. (University Park): $3-million from Earl and Jeanne Claycomb Berkey, of Somerset, Pa., former owners of the Berkey Milk Company, in Somerset, to help construct the Food Science Building; and $1.5-million from real-estate developers Helen and Alex Woskob, of State College, Pa., co-founders of A.W. and Sons Enterprises, to endow the Woskob Family Chair in International Agriculture.

Roanoke College (Salem, Va.): $5-million from Tristam C. Colket Jr., of Paoli, Pa., a stock-market investor, and his wife, Ruth, parents of 1998 graduate Bryan Dorrance Colket, to help build a new student center.

Saint Joseph College (West Hartford, Conn.): $2-million from Helen M. Lynch, of West Hartford, a retired high-school teacher, for capital needs.

St. Andrews Presbyterian College (Laurinburg, N.C.): $1-million pledge from an anonymous donor for capital needs.

St. Louis College of Pharmacy: $1-million from Victor I. Cartwright, a 1947 graduate and co-founder of Deseret, a medical supply company in Provo, Utah, bought by Werner Lambert in 1976, and his wife, Fae C. Cartwright, for scholarships and general support.

Sterling College (Kansas): $2.3-million from M.D. (Pete) McVay, of Minneapolis, former president of Cargill, and his wife, Mary, to help restore a historic campus building that will house the college’s Social Entrepreneurship Center.

U. of Arizona (Tucson): $1-million from Mark Hoffman, chairman of Commerce One, in Pleasanton, Calif., a business software and service provider, and his wife, Susan, to endow the Mark and Susan Hoffman E-Commerce Lab at the Eller College of Business and Public Administration.

U. of Iowa (Iowa City): $1-million from the estate of alumnus William R. (Bill) Fenton, a former emergency room physician at Kaiser Permanente Hospital, in Santa Clara, Calif., who died in 1999 at age 66, to establish the Bill and John Fenton Scholarship Funds, named for Mr. Fenton and his late brother.

U. of Oregon (Eugene): $4.5-million bequest from Orlando J. Hollis, former dean of the university’s School of Law, who died in March at age 95, to establish the Orlando John and Marian H. Hollis Chair of Law, and to provide scholarships for third-year law students interested in legal procedure and conflict of laws.

U. of Texas at Austin: $6-million from Thomas O. Hicks, John R. Muse, Charles W. Tate, and John D. Furst, partners in the investment company Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst, in Dallas, to establish a center for the study of private equity finance, in the Department of Finance.

U. of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio: $6-million bequest from Berneice Castella, who died in 1999, for research on aging. The donor’s late husband founded W.F. Castella & Associates, a San Antonio engineering company.

Ursinus College (Collegeville, Pa.): $5-million from H.F. (Gerry) Lenfest, of Huntingdon Valley, Pa., a retired cable television executive, and his wife, Marguerite, to help construct a performing-arts center.

Webb Schools (Claremont, Calif.): $4.3-million in an unrestricted charitable remainder trust from Virginia Pinkham, of San Francisco, who died in July, and her late husband, David Pinkham, a farmer who was a 1937 graduate of Webb School of California.

Western Kentucky U. (Bowling Green): $3.5-million pledge from an alumna who wishes to remain anonymous, for a scholarship program for low-income Kentucky residents who have demonstrated leadership at school or in the community.

Winston-Salem Foundation (N.C.): $2-million bequest from Pauline Carter, of Salem, N.C., a former employee at the R.J. Reynolds factory who made a fortune from the tobacco company’s stock, to establish the Sam N. and Pauline H. Carter Fund, which will support programs in Winston-Salem.

Woodmere Art Museum (Philadelphia): $5-million from the estate of Dwight VanRensaleer Downey, of Chestnut Hill, Pa., who worked as a senior trust examiner in the Pennsylvania Department of Banking, to help construct new exhibition space for the museum’s permanent collection.