Two Pledges of $250-Million Made to Charitable Causes; Other Big Gifts

• A high-technology entrepreneur and his wife are donating $250-million to the University of Colorado system. Bill Coleman, founder and chairman of BEA Systems, in San Jose, Calif., and his wife, Claudia, a former manager at Hewlett-Packard, pledged to pay that amount over five years to support an institute that will research the ways technology can be used to help people who are mentally retarded or have other cognitive disabilities.

  The Colemans, whose niece suffers from a cognitive disability, plan to play an active role in the center.

• Ted Turner, founder of Turner Broadcasting System and Cable News Network, announced that he will commit $250-million over five years to establish the Nuclear Threat Initiative, which will work to reduce the global threat posed by nuclear arms and other weapons of mass destruction.

• Elmer Rasmuson, the retired chairman of National Bank of Alaska, has bequeathed $24-million to two Alaska universities. Mr. Rasmuson, who died in December at age 91, left stock worth $19-million to the University of Alaska to support the Rasmuson Library, the Rasmuson Fisheries Institute, and the University of Alaska Museum, at the Fairbanks campus, and the department of economics, in Anchorage. He left an additional $5-million to Alaska Pacific University, in Anchorage, for unrestricted use.

• A Philadelphia woman has left $21-million to three charities. Florence Foerderer, who died in 1999 at age 73, left $7-million each to the Academy of Natural Sciences, in Philadelphia; Gallaudet University, in Washington; and the Philadelphia Zoo. Mrs. Foerderer inherited money from her grandfather, Robert J. Foerderer, who founded the Vici Leather Dressing factory, in Philadelphia.

Other recent gifts:

American U. of Beirut (Lebanon):

$11.7-million pledge from Charles Warren Hostler, of Coronado, Calif., the U.S. ambassador to Bahrain from 1989-93, who received his master’s degree from the university, to establish the Charles Hostler Memorial Student Center.

Columbia College (Mo.): $1.5-million gift from John Schiffman, of St. Louis, a retired PepsiCo executive and a college trustee, in honor of his late wife, an alumna who died in 1987, to create the Althea W. and John A. Schiffman Endowed Chair in Ethics.

Dartmouth College (Hanover, N.H.): $2-million from Henry M. (Hank) Paulson, of New York, chairman of Goldman Sachs, to establish the Robert L. Blackman Endowed Coaching Position, in honor of his former football coach, who died in 1999 at age 81.

Lebanon Valley College (Annville, Pa.): $5-million pledge from Edward H. Arnold, a college trustee and chairman of Arnold Industries, a shipping company in Lebanon, Pa., and his wife, Jeanne Donlevy Arnold, former senior vice president at Good Samaritan Hospital, in Lebanon, to renovate two buildings and construct a gymnasium.

Marymount Manhattan College (New York): $1-million from Eugene M. Lang, founder of REFAC Technology Development Corporation, in New York, to build the Theresa Lang Theatre, in honor of his wife, a 1997 graduate and college trustee.

Murray State U. (Ky.): $1.6-million bequest from James M. Lassiter, of Murray, a retired circuit-court judge, to supplement the endowments of the Mary Moore Lassiter Scholarship for business students, in honor of his late wife, and the James M. Lassiter Scholarship for pre-law students.

Newbury College (Brookline, Mass.): $1-million from Roger A. Saunders, founder of the Saunders Hotel Group, in Boston, to establish the Roger A. Saunders School of Hotel and Restaurant Management.

Norton Museum of Art (West Palm Beach, Fla.): $1-million from Valerie Delacorte, of North Palm Beach, Fla., whose late husband, George, founded Delacorte Publishing, for the George and Valerie Delacorte Gallery, which will exhibit the museum’s collection of Renaissance and Baroque art. Ms. Delacorte is a trustee of the museum.

Pittsburgh Foundation: $5-million from Richard P. Simmons, of Sewickley, Pa., retired chairman of Allegheny Technologies, in Pittsburgh, and his wife, Dorothy P. Simmons, to establish the R.P. Simmons Family Charitable Trust, a supporting organization of the foundation.

Salvation Army Olympia Corps (Wash.): $1-million unrestricted bequest from Charles Miller, of Lacey, Wash., an investor and a cannery foreman, who died in 1997, and his wife, Helen, who died in 1999.

Texas Woman’s University (Denton): $3.9-million trust from the estate of Mary Bryan Reitch, of Wood County, Tex., a 1928 graduate of the university, then called the College of Industrial Arts, who died in 1999 at age 92.

U. of Akron (Ohio): $5-million from James McCready, chairman of the Cypress Companies, a holding company in Akron, and his wife, Gail, to help construct a building for the Institute for Global Business.

U. of California at San Diego: $1.1-million from Jack White, of San Diego, founder of Jack White & Company, an investment company that he sold to T.D. Waterhouse in 1998, and his wife, Judith, to endow the Judith and Jack White Chair in Cardiology.

U. of Wisconsin at Madison: $4-million from Michael E. Lehman, of Saratoga, Calif., chief financial officer at Sun Microsystems, to create the Michael E. Lehman Life Cycle Plan Fund, which will provide salary and other support for business faculty members.

Ukrainian Museum (New York): $3.5-million pledge from Eugene Shklar, a former software executive at Siebel Systems and Keynote Systems, in San Mateo, Calif., and his wife, Daymel, to help construct a new building. The Shklars gave $2.5-million outright, and pledged to match up to $1-million in funds raised by the museum.

Upper Valley Community Foundation (Hanover, N.H.): $6.2-million gift from a couple who wished to remain anonymous, to create a donor-advised fund that will support land-preservation initiatives.