May 17, 2007 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Robert C. Powell, a real-estate developer in Gold River, Calif., and his wife, Jeannette, an interior designer, announced last week that they plan to leave the University of the Pacific, in Stockton, Calif., a $100-million bequest to establish an endowment.
The university won’t receive any of the money until the Powells, both of whom are 75, have died.
Mr. and Ms. Powell are working with university officials to determine what specific programs the endowment, which will be named for the couple, will support, but a portion of it is likely to go toward scholarships.
“Eighty percent of all of our students receive some sort of financial aid to come here, so one of the university’s primary interests is to see some of this money going to scholarships,” said Patrick Giblin, a university spokesman.
Neither of the Powells attended the university, but they have been involved with it for about 20 years. Mr. Powell served on the university’s Board of Regents from 1989 to 1993, and Ms. Powell is a current board member.
The couple has given money to the university in the past — including $1.5-million that Ms. Powell donated in 2000 for an arts center — but university officials won’t say exactly how much money the Powells have given over the years. Mr. and Ms. Powell declined through the university to talk to the news media.
The Powells said in the university’s announcement of the gift that they chose to make their bequest plans public now, while the university’s capital campaign is under way, in the hope that it will encourage others to donate. The university kicked off the campaign in 2000 with a goal of raising $200-million for scholarships and construction projects. Not counting the Powells’ recent pledge, the university has surpassed its goal for the campaign, which ends in October, and has raised $225-million to date.
