Stanford U., Idaho Fund Are Among Recipients of Big Gifts

Several organizations have received large gifts.

* Lorry I. Lokey, founder of Business Wire, has given $20-million to Stanford University, in Palo Alto, Calif., to build a research facility for the Departments of Biological Sciences and Chemistry. The structure is expected to cost $50-million and open in 2002.

Mr. Lokey’s company provides media-relations services to businesses. He is a 1949 Stanford alumnus.

* The Idaho Community Foundation, in Boise, has received a $15-million bequest from the estate of Gladys E. Langroise, a philanthropist and the wife of William Langroise, a lawyer. Mrs. Langroise died in January at the age of 99. She designated half of her gift to provide for the health, education, and welfare of children and young adults, and half to be used at the foundation’s discretion.

* An anonymous donor has given $12-million to Pacific Lutheran University, in Tacoma, Wash., for its capital campaign.

* Kathryn Hach-Darrow, chairman of the Hach Company, in Loveland, Colo., has given $10-million to Northwood University, in Midland, Mich. She designated her gift for the construction of a student-activity center and for scholarships for women.

* James V. Kimsey, chairman emeritus of America Online, has donated $10-million to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in Washington, for the endowment campaign it announced this month. The organization is seeking to raise $100-million and has garnered $70-million so far. The campaign does not yet have a set concluding date.

Mr. Kimsey asked that his gift endow the principal tuba chair at the National Symphony Orchestra, and finance a program that enables fifth-graders in the District of Columbia to attend performances at the Kennedy Center.

Other recent gifts:

Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College (Ga.): $1,200,000 bequest from the estate of Maurice D. Gortatowsky of Albany, Ga., a businessman and investor, for unrestricted use.

Big Horn Basin Cancer Center (Wyo.): $1,000,000 from Bill Price of Cody, Wyo., a businessman, and his wife, Joanne, to construct and equip this facility.

Buffalo Bill Historical Center (Wyo.): $1,000,000 from Marylou Whitney of New York to benefit the Whitney Gallery of Western Art. Ms. Whitney’s late husband, Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, was the founding donor of the gallery.

Jackson Laboratory (Me.): $1,134,891 bequest from the estate of Theodore Whitehouse Jr. of Wellesley, Mass., an engineer at GTE, for cancer research.

Lewis & Clark College (Ore.): $4,300,000 bequest from the estate of Harriet Corbett of Portland, Ore., whose great-grandfather, Henry Winslow Corbett, was a U.S. Senator and founder of First National Bank of Oregon, to help purchase an 18-acre estate.

Milwaukee School of Engineering: $1,000,000 from John Mellowes of Mequon, Wis., chairman of Charter Manufacturing, and his wife, Linda, to endow a professorship in mechanical engineering.

Pacific Oaks College and Children’s School (Calif.): $1,000,000 from Alexander Hixon of Pasadena, Calif., a retired director at the electronics company AMP, and his wife, Adelaide, to endow the education of early-childhood professionals at the Jones/Prescott Institute for Early Childhood Education.

U. of Arkansas: $4,000,000 from Thomas Patrick Seay of Bentonville, Ark., a former executive vice president at Wal-Mart Stores, to establish a professorship in real estate and finance at the College of Business Administration, and for the men’s basketball and football programs.

U. of Colorado at Boulder: $1,100,000 from Anthony Moores of Sugar Land, Tex., co-founder of JMI Equity Fund, and his daughter, Melissa, for graduate fellowships.

U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Stock valued at $1,028,000 from James R. White of Chapel Hill, a retired professor of biochemistry at the university, for fellowships in neuroscience research.

U. of Rhode Island: $1,000,000 from Thomas M. Ryan of Woonsocket, R.I., chairman of CVS Corporation, for the campaign to build a convocation center.

U. of Washington: $5,000,000 from Robert Reid of Bellingham, Wash., founder of Reid Sand & Gravel, and his wife, Jean, to endow scholarships at the School of Nursing.

U.S. Naval Academy Foundation (Md.): $1,000,000 bequest from the estate of Bill Daniels of Denver, a U.S. Navy pilot who became a cable-television executive, to establish a series of lectures at the Academy on sea power.

West Virginia U.: $2,500,000 from Edna Bennett Pierce of Wilmington, Del., whose late husband, C. Eugene Bennett, was a chemist and a real-estate developer, for programs and graduate scholarships at the Department of Chemistry and at Eberly College, and for the University Libraries.

Western Kentucky U.: $1,300,000 bequest from the estate of James H. Stuteville of Sonora, Ky., a physician, for scholarships for students studying mathematics and science.