U. of Chicago Receives $42-Million for a Pediatric Center; Other Big Gifts

Seven institutions have received big gifts:

• The University of Chicago has received a $42-million gift from Gary C. Comer, founder of the Lands’ End clothing company, and his wife, Frances, of Chicago, to establish a pediatric-care center. The gift, which the university says is the largest single donation in its history, will also support recruitment efforts and programs in pediatric medicine.
• Jack Lord, the actor, and his wife, Marie, have left a $40-million bequest to the Hawaii Community Foundation, in Honolulu, for an endowment that will benefit 12 local charities specified by the couple. Mr. Lord, who starred in the television series Hawaii Five-O, died in 1998, and his wife died in October 2005.
• Brandeis University, in Waltham, Mass., has received a $25-million gift from Carl J. Shapiro, founder and former chairman of Kay Windsor, a clothing manufacturer and importer, and his wife, Ruth, to construct a center for the life sciences and interdisciplinary research. The Shapiros reside in Boston and Palm Beach, Fla.
• Grace M. Pollock of Camp Hill, Pa., has made a $15-million gift to the Lion Foundation of the Camp Hill School District, earmarked for the performing-arts programs at Eisenhower Elementary School. Mrs. Pollock, a former model and Broadway dancer, was married to S.W. Pollock, a mechanical engineer who worked on the Manhattan Project and later became a vice president at AMP, in Harrisburg, Pa. Mr. Pollock died in 1997.
• The Animal Medical Center in New York has received $10-million from the estate of Geoffrey Beene, the fashion designer, who died in 2004. The money will be used to acquire new technology, renovate facilities, and support existing programs.
• J. Crayton Pruitt Sr., a surgeon and inventor in St. Petersburg, Fla., has given $10-million to the University of Florida’s College of Engineering, in Gainesville, to support faculty members, research, technology, and academic programs in the biomedical-engineering department. Dr. Pruitt, who invented the Pruitt-Inahara Carotid Shunt, a surgical device that can help prevent stroke, received a heart transplant from the university’s medical center in 1995.
• Westminster College, in Salt Lake City, has received a $10-million gift from Ginger and John Giovale of Flagstaff, Ariz., to endow a professorship in science and help build a new science center. Ms. Giovale, who serves on Westminster’s Board of Trustees, is the daughter of Wilbert L. and Genevieve Gore, founders of W.L. Gore and Associates, a manufacturing company best known for its invention of Gore-Tex fabric.

Other recent gifts:

Columbia Law School (New York): $3.2-million from Alphonse Fletcher Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of Fletcher Asset Management, in New York, to endow a professorship in race and social-justice issues.

Cornell U., Weill Medical College (New York): $3-million from the family of Nanette Laitman, of New York, to establish a program in public health that will endow four professorships in prevention, clinical evaluation, community health, and quality-of-care research.

Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago-Kent College of Law: $1-million from Roy C. Palmer and his wife, Susan, of Sarasota, Fla., for campus expansion. Mr. Palmer and his daughter, Allysson, are both graduates of the law school.

Kansas State U. Foundation (Manhattan): $1-million from Paul Edgerley, managing director of Bain Capital, in Boston, and his wife, Sandra, to endow two professorships in the university’s College of Business Administration.

Kiwanis International Foundation (Indianapolis): $1-million from Elmer H. Austermann Jr., president and chief executive officer of Sun Security Bank, in St. Peters, Mo., and his wife, Bernyce, for the organization’s endowment, with the interest to be used for domestic and international community-service projects.

Knox College (Galesburg, Ill.): $1-million from an anonymous donor to endow a professorship in philosophy.

Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (Boston): $1.8-million from Helene and Grant Wilson, entrepreneurs in Boston, for research, development, and a clinical program in auditory brain-stem implants.

New Mexico State U., College of Engineering (Las Cruces): $1.5-million from Ed Foreman, a former oilman and U.S. congressman from New Mexico, and his brother, Harold, president and co-owner of Valley Leasing and Development, in Las Cruces. The gift will be used to recruit and retain students, establish two professorships, and endow one professorship in civil engineering.

St. John Fisher College (Pittsford, N.Y.): $8-million from Robert B. Wegman, chairman of Wegmans Food Markets, in Rochester, N.Y., to establish a nursing school.

Steven F. Austin State U. (Nacogdoches, Tex.): $2-million from Gerald W. Schlief, senior vice president at ATP, an oil and gas company in Houston, to establish an endowment for the department of accounting.

U. of Illinois at Chicago, College of Engineering: $2-million from Peter Wexler, vice president of engineering and product operations at Stoke Inc., in Mountain View, Calif., to support a researcher in information technology.

U. of Pennsylvania Law School (Philadelphia): $1-million from James E. Nevels, chairman of the Swarthmore Group, an asset-management company in West Chester, Pa., to set up a financial-aid program. Mr. Nevels, who also leads the Philadelphia School Reform Commission, graduated from the law school in 1978.

U. of Pittsburgh: Land valued at approximately $7-million from Allen Cook, a rancher in Wheatland, Wyo., for the Honors College. The property, which covers 4,700 acres in eastern Wyoming, contains valuable dinosaur fossil beds that the university plans to explore through field programs in paleontology, anthropology, environmental studies, and other disciplines.

Yale U. (New Haven, Conn.): $1-million from Steven Brill, founder of American Lawyer and Court TV, in New York, to help create a journalism program. Mr. Brill graduated from Yale College in 1972 and Yale Law School in 1975.