U. of Colorado Receives $20-Million; Other Gifts

Five institutions have received big gifts:

• The University of Colorado at Boulder has received $20-million from Marvin Caruthers, a chemistry and biochemistry professor and co-founder of Amgen, a drug-research and manufacturing company in Thousand Oaks, Calif., for an interdisciplinary biotechnology building scheduled to open in 2010. The new building will house classrooms, teaching labs, seminar rooms, and research facilities, and is designed to foster collaboration among engineering, medical, and scientific disciplines. The building will be named after his late wife, Jennie, who worked as an adjunct professor in the university’s department of chemistry and biochemistry.
• The Boston Public Library has received $10-million from Norman B. Leventhal, co-founder of Beacon Companies, a real-estate development firm in Boston, to permanently endow its map center. Mr. Leventhal, who is retired, is also lending the library 178 historic maps from his private collection.
• The Lyric Opera of Chicago has received an unrestricted pledge of $10-million from Nancy Welch Knowles, chairman emeritus of Knowles Electronics, a manufacturing company in Chicago. The opera company will receive the gift upon Ms. Knowles’s death, and will use the money for general operating support. Ms. Knowles, a member of the opera’s Board of Directors, is also president of the Knowles Foundation, in Chicago.
• South Coast Repertory, in Costa Mesa, Calif., has received $10-million from George Argyros, chief executive officer of Arnel & Affiliates, a real-estate development and management company in Costa Mesa, and his wife, Julianne, to endow theater productions on the Julianne Argyros Stage. The couple gave $5-million in 2000 to support the theater’s capital campaign. Mr. Argyros, a founding partner of Westar Capital, an investment firm, is a former ambassador to Spain.
• Joseph J. Zilber, founder and chairman of Zilber Ltd., a real-estate development and management company in Milwaukee, has given $10-million to establish the School of Public Health at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. The donor has stipulated that the school’s building be located in the city’s downtown area. In August, Mr. Zilber announced he would donate $50-million to groups in the city of Milwaukee, his hometown; earlier this month, he pledged $30-million to Marquette University’s law school.

Other recent gifts:

Canisius College (Buffalo, N.Y.): $1-million from Chester Stranczek, founder and retired chairman of Cresco Lines, a trucking company in Crestwood, Ill., and his wife, Diane, secretary and treasurer of Cresco Lines, to help create an interdisciplinary science center. Mr. Stranczek, who has been mayor of Crestwood for 38 years, and his wife donated $1-million to the college in 2002 to renovate an arena in its athletic center.

Denver Art Museum: $5-million pledge from Tom Petrie, co-founder and former chief executive officer of Petrie Parkman & Company, an investment bank in Denver that was sold last year to Merrill Lynch, to endow its Institute of Western American Art and to support exhibitions, staffing, educational programs, and conservation. The museum has received $3-million already but must raise an additional $2-million from other donors to receive the remainder of Mr. Petrie’s gift. The donor, who is now a vice chairman at Merrill Lynch, in New York, has also lent the museum several artworks by Charles M. Russell, a painter and sculptor.

Duke U., Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy (Durham, N.C.): $3-million from anonymous donors to establish the Center for Strategic Philanthropy and Civil Society, which will work with foundations and governments to develop solutions to social problems; $2.5-million from Ralph Eads III, president of Randall & Dewey, an oil- and gas-investment bank in Houston, and his wife, Lisa, to endow scholarships and undergraduate research; $1.5-million pledge from an anonymous donor to endow a visiting professorship and a graduate fellowship; $1-million from J. Adam Abram, founder and chief executive officer of the James River Group, a holding company for insurance providers in Chapel Hill, N.C., and his wife, Rosalind, a clinical psychologist, to endow fellowships; and an additional $1-million pledge from anonymous donors to support graduate fellowships.

Emory U. School of Medicine (Atlanta): $5.4-million from Andrew McKelvey, founder of Monster Worldwide, a Web site based in New York that advertises job openings and helps companies find potential employees, to support its lung-transplant and transplant-immunology programs. In 2001, Mr. McKelvey donated $20-million to Emory’s Lung Transplantation Center.

Friends of the Columbia Gorge (Portland, Ore.): $1-million pledge from Anthony Hovey, president of AF Hovey and Associates, a business-consulting company in Seattle, to help the group acquire and preserve land for a park and recreational facilities.

Ohio Wesleyan U. (Delaware): $2.3-million unrestricted bequest from the estate of George S. Peters, a physician in Montgomery, Ala. The gift will endow the George Stanley Peters and Louise C. Peters University Chair. Dr. Peters, who graduated from the university in 1929 with a bachelor’s degree in pre-medicine, died in 2005 at the age of 100.

Pepperdine U. School of Law (Malibu, Calif.): $5-million from Herbert and Elinor Nootbaar, agribusiness consultants based in Capistrano Beach, Calif., to endow the Institute on Law, Religion, and Ethics. Mr. Nootbaar is founder and president of H.V. Nootbaar and Company, the couple’s consulting firm in Capistrano Beach.

U. of Iowa (Iowa City): $6-million from the estate of Ann Morse, whose late husband, John, was a partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, a law firm in New York, to support study-abroad scholarships for needy students. Mr. Morse, who died in 2004 at the age of 94, graduated from the university in 1930. Ms. Morse died last year at age 86.

U. of Washington (Seattle): $1-million pledge from David Kopay, a retired professional football player and buyer and salesman at Linoleum City, a flooring company in Los Angeles, to support the university’s Q Center, which provides services for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students. Mr. Kopay, who graduated in 1966 with a bachelor’s degree in history, in 1975 was the first professional athlete to come out as gay.

U. of Wisconsin at River Falls: $1-million bequest from the estate of Lucile Spriggs, a retired social-service worker at the Veterans Administration Hospital, in Minneapolis, to support scholarships for students who demonstrate leadership skills. Ms. Spriggs, who died in 2005 at the age of 88, graduated from the university in 1938 with bachelor’s degrees in social studies and English.

U.S. Coast Guard Academy Alumni Association (New London, Conn.): $1.2-million pledge from William B. Hewitt, a retired lieutenant commander in the Coast Guard and founder of Sirius Ventures, a business-consulting firm in Charleston, S.C., to improve and expand the academy’s writing-center programs. Lt. Cmdr. Hewitt graduated from the institution in 1959.

Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, Boston: $2-million from Alice Schulman and her late husband, the Rev. Jacob Frank Schulman, a Unitarian Universalist minister at Emerson Unitarian Universalist Church, in Houston. The Schulmans earmarked their gift to endow professorships and scholarships in Unitarian Universalism at Harvard U., in Cambridge, Mass., and the Meadville Lombard Theological School, in Chicago, and to endow scholarships in Unitarian Universalism at Simmons College, in Boston. The Rev. Schulman, who graduated from Harvard Divinity School in 1954, died last year at the age of 78. Ms. Schulman graduated from Simmons in 1954.

Wesleyan U. (Middletown, Conn.): $2.5-million from Ezra Zilkha, president of Zilkha & Sons, an investment firm in New York, and his wife, Cecile, to endow a professorship in social studies. Mr. Zilkha, a member of the class of 1947 who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in political science and economics, and his wife gave $1-million in 1990 to help build a new art museum.