Stanford U. Receives $30-Million for Environmental Studies; Other Gifts

Five higher-education institutions and one medical center have received big gifts:

• Ward W. Woods, former president and chief executive officer of Bessemer Securities, a private investment company in New York, and his wife, Priscilla, a clinical social worker, have pledged $30-million to Stanford University’s environmental institute, which will be renamed after the couple. Mr. Woods is a 1964 graduate of the university and a trustee. The Woodses reside in New York and Sun Valley, Idaho.
• The University of Chicago has received a $25-million pledge from Jules Knapp, an entrepreneur in Chicago, and his wife, Gwen, to build a facility that will house research on cancer, genomics, pediatrics, and other medical specialties. The couple’s gift is the third donation of $5-million or more made to the university’s biomedical program since mid-January.
• Helen R. Walton, of Bentonville, Ark., the widow of Wal-Mart founder Sam M. Walton, has given $20-million to the University of the Ozarks, in Clarksville, Ark. The money will create a teacher-education program, support new faculty positions, establish a loan and scholarship fund, and augment the university’s endowment.
• San Jose State University, in California, has received a $10-million pledge from Donald and Sally Lucas, of Saratoga, Calif., for professorships, faculty fellowships, executive-education programs, a scholars-in-residence program, and scholarships at the Graduate School of Business. Part of the pledge has already been paid. Mr. Lucas is founder of Lucas Trust Ventures, as well as founder of the Lucas Dealership Group, which began when he opened a used-car lot to pay for his education at San Jose State. Ms. Lucas, who is also a graduate of the university, is the owner of SL Interior Designs.
• Sheldon B. Lubar, founder and chairman of Lubar & Company, a private investment firm in Milwaukee, has pledged $10-million to the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee for its School of Business Administration. The gift will support new professorships, student scholarships, and other needs of the business school.
• William P. Clements Jr., a two-term governor of Texas who made his fortune in the energy business, has given $10-million to the Southwestern Medical Foundations for a building that houses biomedical research and imaging services at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

Other recent gifts:

Augustana College (Rock Island, Ill.): $5-million each from two anonymous donors for capital projects and endowment.

California State U.-Channel Islands (Camarillo): $3-million pledge from the family of Martin V. (Bud) Smith, a former real-estate developer and investor in Oxnard, Calif., to establish a school of business and economics, to support faculty research and student scholarships, and to endow a professorship in the study of land use. Mr. Smith died in 2001 at the age of 85.

Canisius College (Buffalo, N.Y.): $5.1-million from the family of Carl J. and Carol Ann Montante, of Clarence, N.Y., to establish an interdisciplinary science center. Mr. Montante is founder and president of Uniland Development Company, in Amherst, N.Y.

Curtis Institute of Music (Philadelphia): $1-million from Bruce Jay Gould, a cardiologist in Philadelphia, to create a chair in cello studies in honor of his friend Orlando Cole, a Curtis graduate and retired faculty member.

Duke U., Fuqua School of Business (Durham, N.C.): $1-million from Jack Bovender, chief executive officer of HCA, a health-care system in Nashville, and his wife, Barbara, to create a scholarship program for minority students in the health sector-management program.

Greater Cincinnati Foundation: $2.9-million bequest from Lawrence Dollman, of Glendale, Ohio, to establish a fund for selected organizations. Mr. Dollman, who owned Dollman Heating and Air Conditioning, died in April 2005.

Hobart and William Smith Colleges (Geneva, N.Y.): $1.25-million from Katherine D. Elliott, chief operating officer of Petner Asset Management, a hedge fund in New York, to construct a studio-arts building.

Hollins U. (Roanoke, Va.): $2-million from Frank Batten, retired chairman and chief executive officer of Landmark Communications, in Norfolk, Va., and his wife, Jane, to endow the Batten Leadership Institute.

Miami U. (Oxford, Ohio): $4-million pledge from Thomas J. Petters, chief executive officer and chairman of Petters Group Worldwide, in Minnetonka, Minn., which includes uBid.com, Polaroid, and other consumer-products companies, to endow a chair in Asian business within the Richard T. Farmer School of Business.

Middlesex School (Concord, Mass.): $6-million gift from Victor Atkins, a retired investor in Santa Barbara, Calif., for its endowment, with the interest going to financial-aid programs.

Niagara U. (N.Y.): $5-million from Jerry Bisgrove, chief executive officer of Stardust Companies, a real-estate development company in Scottsdale, Ariz., to help build facilities for the College of Business Administration.

North Dakota State U. (Fargo): $1-million from Shelly Ellig, owner of the Stop-N-Go convenience-store chain, to help renovate the sports arena.

Our Lady of the Lake U. (San Antonio): $2.2-million from Janice Men-delson, a retired Army surgeon in San Antonio, to create an endowment for the International Folk Culture Center.

Salem State College (Mass.): $1-million from Jack Welch, former chairman and chief executive officer of General Electric, to create eight scholarships that will enable residents of Salem or graduates of Salem Hill School to attend the Bertolon School of Business. Mr. Welch resides in Boston.

Southern Methodist U. (Dallas): $1.2-million from the families of William A. Custard and L. Frank Pitts to endow four academic merit scholarships. The families own several oil, ranching, investment, and real-estate companies in Dallas.

St. George’s School (Newport, R.I.): $7.3-million bequest from Henry Pease, a banker in Philadelphia, for its endowment, with the interest to be used for financial aid and teachers’ salaries. Mr. Pease died in 1979.

U. of Iowa Foundation (Iowa City): $5-million from Lucille A. Carver, of Muscatine, Iowa, to the Center for Macular Degeneration to establish a nonprofit genetic-testing laboratory that plans to develop a test for every gene known to cause a hereditary eye disease.

U. of Michigan Museum of Art (Ann Arbor): $4-million from A. Alfred Taubman, founder of Taubman Centers, a mall- and retail-design company in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., and $1-million from Irving Stenn Jr., a lawyer in Chicago, for the museum’s facility expansion and restoration project.

U. of Missouri at Columbia: Approximately $3-million pledge from Jeffrey E. Smith, founder and president of Jeffrey E. Smith Companies, in Columbia, to establish a real-estate institute in the College of Business, and $1-million from Paul Shumaker, a founder of Garmin International, and his wife, Dianne, of Kansas City, Mo., for a professorship in bioinformatics in the College of Engineering.