Tufts University to Receive $25-Million From Founder of eBay; Other Gifts

Four institutions have received big gifts:

• Tufts University, in Medford, Mass., has received a $25-million pledge from Pierre and Pam Omidyar for student aid. The gift is designed to help the university adopt a need-blind admissions policy that would expand the number of undergraduate scholarships given to students from low-income families. Mr. Omidyar, a trustee of the university, is the founder and chairman of eBay. The couple, who graduated from Tufts, has paid $5-million toward the pledge.
• Pace University, in New York, has received $15-million from Ivan G. Seidenberg for its School of Computer Science and Information Systems. The money will support a scholarship program and the school’s endowment. Mr. Seidenberg, a university trustee, is chairman and chief executive officer of Verizon Communications, in New York.
• E.W. and Mary Firstenburg have pledged $15-million to Southwest Washington Medical Center, in Vancouver, Wash., for its campaign to update the center’s technology and make other improvements to the building and its operations. The Firstenburgs own First Independent Bank, which has offices in Vancouver and Bellevue, Wash., and Portland, Ore.
• The University of Washington, in Seattle, has received $10-million from Althea Stroum and her late husband, Sam, for its Jewish-studies program. Approximately $2-million of the gift will support a lecture series and the publication of a book series, $3-million will create endowed professorships, and $5-million will support scholarships and fellowships for undergraduate and graduate students, as well as other needs. Mr. Stroum owned Schucks Auto Parts, in Seattle.

Other recent gifts:

Asheville School (N.C.): $1-million from Stephen A. Bryant, a 1941 graduate of the school, for scholarships. Mr. Bryant is a retired lawyer who lives in Fremont, Mich.

Bennington College (Vt.): $5.8-million from Penelope Perkins Wilson, a member of the college’s Board of Trustees, for campus improvements. Ms. Wilson owns The Grand, a hotel in Big Timber, Mont., and resides in Malvern, Pa.

California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (Sacramento): $5-million from Ray and Dagmar Dolby for the institute’s grant-making program, planning, and general operating support. Mr. Dolby is the founder and chairman of Dolby Laboratories, an audio-entertainment company in San Francisco.

Cape Cod Healthcare (Hyannis, Mass.): $1-million from anonymous donors to support Falmouth Hospital and the Visiting Nurse Association of Cape Cod.

Center on Halsted (Chicago): $1-million pledge from Miriam U. Hoover, of Glencoe, Ill., for the capital campaign of this resource center for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. Mrs. Hoover is the widow of H. Earl Hoover, who started the Hoover Company’s engineering department and served as the company’s chairman of the board.

Children’s Medical Center Dallas: $8.5-million bequest from Mary Celestia Fisher, of Frisco, Tex., to create a fund that will help hire pediatric physicians and train young physicians to become clinical researchers. Ms. Fisher, who died in 2004, was the founder of Consulting Actuarial Practice, in Dallas.

Grameen Foundation USA (Washington): $5-million from Janet McKinley and her husband, George Miller, to provide loans to help poor people start their own businesses. Ms. McKinley is a retired chair of the Income Fund of America, an investment firm in San Francisco, and Mr. Miller is a retired chairman of Capital Research Company, a Los Angeles investment firm.

The Johns Hopkins U. (Baltimore): $1-million from an anonymous alumnus for the Julian C. Stanley Study of Exceptional Talent Program at the Center for Talented Youth.

Kansas State U. Foundation (Manhattan): $1-million pledge from Lee and Kathleen Borck for scholarships. Mr. Borck is a 1970 graduate of the university and the owner and president of Ward Feed Yard, in Larned, Kan. The couple, who will donate the gift at the time of their deaths, are also making a $30,000 annual commitment to the foundation.

Mississippi State U. (Starkville): $1.75-million from James T. and Barbara White to endow a professorship in civil engineering. Mr. White is president of the H.C. Price Company, an oil and gas pipeline contractor in Dallas.

National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library (Cedar Rapids, Iowa): $1-million from Ray L. Jiruska for exhibitions. Mr. Jiruska, of Cedar Rapids, was one of the original franchise owners of H&R Block, the tax-preparation company based in Kansas City, Mo.

New Jersey City U.: $2.5-million from George Karnoutsos, a retired professor of philosophy at the university, for general support.

Oxfam America (Boston): $5-million from Janet McKinley and her husband, George Miller, for its efforts to help poor people around the world develop more profitable and sustainable ways to earn a living. Ms. McKinley is a retired chair of the Income Fund of America, an investment firm in San Francisco, and Mr. Miller is a retired chairman of Capital Research Company, a Los Angeles investment firm.

Peninsula Open Space Trust (Menlo Park, Calif.): $1-million gift from Ambassador L. William Lane Jr. and his wife, Jean, of Portola Valley, Calif., for the trust’s efforts to conserve the San Mateo County coast. Mr. Lane is the former publisher of Sunset magazine and the retired co-chairman of the board of Lane Publishing Company, which is now the Sunset Publishing Corporation. His diplomatic appointments included serving as U.S. ambassador to Australia.

Pittsburg State U. (Kan.): $1.7-million bequest from Theodore and Faery Loveridge to help the library purchase databases and other electronic information. Mr. Loveridge is a 1939 graduate of the university and worked as assistant chief inspector for the Food and Drug Administration. Mr. Loveridge died in 1998, and Ms. Loveridge, who worked as a librarian at Cornell University, died this year.

U. of California at Los Angeles: $1-million pledge from Mohinder Sambhi to endow a professorship in Indian music within the Department of Ethnomusicology. Dr. Sambhi is a professor emeritus at the university’s Geffen School of Medicine.

U. of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (Dallas): $1.5-million pledge from Nancy Hamon to establish the George N. Peters Center for Breast Surgery. Ms. Hamon was once Dr. Peters’s patient, and made the pledge, a challenge gift, in his honor. Ms. Hamon’s late husband, Jake, founded Hamon Oil Company, in Dallas.

Wofford College (Spartanburg, S.C.): $1-million from Russell Raines, a 1993 graduate, to renovate the college’s historic Main Building. Mr. Raines is an administrator at the Mary Black Health System, in Spartanburg.