USC’s School of Fine Arts Receives $23-Million; Other Gifts

Five institutions have received big gifts:

• The University of Southern California’s School of Fine Arts, in Los Angeles, has received a $23-million pledge from Edward P. Roski Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of Majestic Realty, in Los Angeles, and his wife, Gayle Garner Roski. The donation will be used for faculty recruitment, graduate scholarships, and technology. Mr. Roski is a graduate and a trustee of the university.

• The University of South Alabama, in Mobile, has received a $22-million gift from Abraham and Mayer Mitchell, local brothers who made their fortune in real estate, and Mayer’s wife, Arlene. The donation will support the university’s cancer-research institute. Part of the money has already been paid, and the remainder will be distributed over the next 10 years.

• Ronald O. Perelman, chairman and chief executive officer of MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings, in New York, has pledged $20-million to Carnegie Hall, also in New York, to endow arts and education programs. Mr. Perelman is a trustee of Carnegie Hall, and plans to pay the money over 10 years.

• Lorry I. Lokey, founder and chairman of Business Wire, a news service in San Francisco, has pledged $12.5-million to the University of Oregon, in Eugene, to build a new academic complex and renovate facilities at the College of Education. Mr. Lokey grew up in Portland, Ore.

• Stanford Law School, in Calif., has received $10-million from Arthur Rock, principal of Arthur Rock and Company, a venture-capital firm in San Francisco, and his wife, Toni Rembe Rock. The gift will be used to establish a center to teach and study corporate governance.

Other recent gifts:

Capital Partners for Education (Washington): $1.3-million from Vice President Richard B. (Dick) Cheney and his wife, Lynne, for programs that provide academic scholarships and other support for low-income students.

Duke U. (Durham, N.C.): $2-million from Mitchell Rubenstein and his wife, Laurie Silvers, founders of the Sci-Fi Channel, for programs at the university’s Hillel, a national organization for Jewish student life. The couple reside in Boca Raton, Fla.

Emerson College (Boston): $1.5-million from Honey Waldman and her sister, Gladys Waldman Brownstein, to endow a professorship in theater arts. Ms. Waldman, a 1946 graduate of the college, is the owner of the Helen Hayes Performing Arts Center, in Nyack, N.Y., and the Bouwerie Lane Theater, in New York.

Emerson Hospital (Concord, Mass.): $1-million from Charles Clough, chairman and chief executive officer of Clough Capital Partners, an investment firm in Boston, and his wife, Gloria, a clinical specialist and counselor in mental health, for a new surgical center. The Cloughs reside in Concord.

Florida Southern College (Lakeland): $2-million from Marcene H. Christoverson, of Jupiter, Fla., to construct a building that will house the college’s languages, literature, and other humanities programs. Ms. Christoverson is chairman of St. John Associates, in New York, and serves as a trustee of the college.

George Washington U. Medical Faculty Associates (Washington): $2.7-million from Vice President Richard B. (Dick) Cheney and his wife, Lynne, to create an institute focused on cardiovascular disease. Mr. Cheney has been treated for heart problems at the university’s hospital.

Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association: Approximately $1-million from Suzanne Gottlieb, president of Greenview, a real-estate management company in Los Angeles, to expand and renovate facilities at the Los Angeles Zoo.

Holy Cross Hospital (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.): $4-million from Michael and Dianne Bienes, investors and former accountants who live in Fort Lauderdale, for a new diagnostic-imaging center, and $1-million from Harry and Beatrice Feldman, of Tamarac, Fla., for a new program in preventive care at the hospital’s Center for Optimal Health.

Norton Museum of Art (West Palm Beach, Fla.): $2-million from Melvin J. Levine, former president and director of Atlantic Plastic Container, and his wife, Claire, of Palm Beach, Fla., to purchase and display two sculptures.

Oklahoma State U. (Stillwater): $1-million from Barry and Karen Lowe, of Bartlesville, Okla., both retired employees of the energy company ConocoPhillips, to create a mentorship program for young students at schools in low-income neighborhoods in the region. The students will then be eligible for scholarships to attend the university.

Old Capitol Foundation (Vandalia, Ill.): $1.35-million bequest from Hazel Kelly, of Vandalia, to construct a campus in Vandalia of Kaskaskia College (Centralia, Ill.). Ms. Kelly died in 2005.

Santa Rosa Children’s Hospital Foundation (San Antonio): $6.3-million unrestricted bequest from Mary Mildred Whalen, a former elementary-school teacher in San Antonio. Ms. Whalen died in 2004.

U. of Colorado at Denver and Health Science Center: $3-million from Jerome H. Kern, an entrepreneur in Denver, and his wife, Mary Rossick Kern, for cancer research at the Thyroid Tumor Center, which will be located on the university’s new campus in Aurora, Colo.

U. of Missouri at Columbia: $1-million from James E. Nave, a veterinarian in Las Vegas, to renovate the College of Veterinary Medicine.

U. of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (Dallas): $1.5-million from William H. Clark, a lawyer in Dallas, and his wife, Elloine, to recruit faculty members to study Alzheimer’s disease.

Wake Forest U. (Winston-Salem, N.C.): $1-million from Thomas Dingledine, president of Exploration Partners, an energy company in Charlottesville, Va., for academic programs at the Babcock Graduate School of Management.