Virginia School Gets $15-Million; Other Gifts

A private school and two universities have received big gifts.

* The Steward School, a pre-kindergarten-through-12th-grade day school in Richmond, Va., has received $15-million from anonymous donors. The number of benefactors remains a mystery to school officials, as the gift was made through a representative on the donors’ behalf.

The gift arrived with three restrictions: that the school, which currently enrolls 324 students, not stray from its emphasis on small classes; that a large portion of the money support a fine-arts center; and that $5-million be added to the school’s endowment, which had previously stood at $650,000.

* Washington University in St. Louis has received an $11-million bequest from the estate of James W. Reid, the former chairman of a farm-supply company, for the business school.

The bulk of the unrestricted gift will support scholarships for doctoral candidates. Mr. Reid, who sold the company that was known as Robertson’s Farm Supply in 1963, graduated from the school in 1928.

* The University of Tampa has received $10-million from the local technology magnate John H. Sykes and his wife, Susan.

Most of the money will be used to renovate the university’s McKay Auditorium, which has been closed since fire swept its interior in 1993, so that it may serve as a building for the business college. The remainder of the gift will be used to endow the Center for Ethics and to construct a chapel and a cultural center.

Mr. Sykes is chairman of Sykes Enterprises, an information-technology company in Tampa.

Other recent gifts:

Albertson College (Idaho): $4,450,000 from Kathryn Albertson of Boise, Idaho, widow of Joe Albertson, founder of the Albertson’s supermarket chain, to endow scholarships.

Canisius College (N.Y.): $2,250,000 from Richard E. Winter of Ogdensburg, N.Y., president of Pepsi-Cola Ogdensburg Bottlers, to improve the student center and for scholarships; $1,000,000 from Mary Koessler of Lake View, N.Y., whose late husband, John, was retired vice-chairman of Sullivan Graphics; $1,000,000 from a group of Jesuit priests who teach at the college and its affiliated high school; and $1,000,000 from two anonymous donors. The latter three gifts are for the capital campaign.

Chowan College (N.C.): $1,150,000 bequest from the estate of Susan Parker Kerr of Indian Lakes Estates, Fla., whose father, Elwood W. Parker, owned or operated several companies, for scholarships.

Goucher College (Md.): $1,000,000 from Margot Birmingham Perot of Dallas, wife of the businessman and former Presidential candidate Ross Perot, for salary support for faculty members.

Harvard U. (Mass.): $1,000,000 from Socrates Kokkalis, chairman of Intracom in Attika, Greece, a telecommunications and electronics company, to provide scholarships to the John F. Kennedy School of Government for students from Greece, Hungary, Macedonia, Romania, and the former Yugoslavia and for research on issues that affect that region.

Montshire Museum of Science (Vt.): $1,000,000 from an anonymous donor for new exhibits and programs on ecology.

New York U.: $6,500,000 from Kenneth G. Langone of Sands Point, N.Y., managing director of Invemed Associates, a brokerage and investment company, and his wife, Elaine, to endow the evening M.B.A. program at the Stern School of Business.

Oakland U. (Mich.): $2,000,000 from Dennis Pawley of Clarkston, Mich., executive vice-president for manufacturing at the Chrysler Corporation, and his wife, Carlotta, for the Schools of Education and Human Services and of Engineering and Computer Science.

Quinnipiac College (Conn.): $4,000,000 from A. Van H. Bernhard of Westport, Conn., an investor, for library renovations and to endow a professorship in economics and the directorship of the Learning Center.

Southern Methodist U. (Tex.): $3,000,000 from John C. Tolleson of Dallas, former chairman of First USA, and his wife, Debbie, to endow a deanship at the Cox School of Business.

State U. of New York at Buffalo: $2,000,000 bequest from the estate of Nova G. Petsan of Niagara Falls, N.Y., a high-school French and Latin teacher and an employment counselor, for nursing scholarships.

Stevens Institute of Technology (N.J.): $6,630,000 from Wesley J. Howe of Franklin Lakes, N.J., former chairman of Becton, Dickinson & Company, to create a graduate business school dedicated to technology management.

Texas Tech U.: $7,000,000 from Bobby G. Stevenson of Englewood, Colo., chairman of Ciber Inc., a computer-services company, for scholarships and to endow a chair in the College of Business Administration.

U. of Akron (Ohio): $1,000,000 from an anonymous donor for the capital campaign.

U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: Bequest of cash and property totaling $2,000,000 from the estate of Edith H. Kosterka of Wayne, Ill., a horse breeder, for the equine program at the College of Veterinary Medicine; $1,750,000 from Helen F. (Lynn) Van Poucke of Elgin, Ill., whose late husband, Raymond, was president of VanAgri Inc., to establish a chair in animal-science nutrition at the College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences; $1,600,000 from Herschel Porter of Indianapolis, a retired research scientist at Eli Lilly Research Laboratories, to establish a fund to benefit the chemistry department of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; $1,600,000 from Charles Marshall of Naples, Fla., retired vice-chairman at AT&T, and his wife, Millicent, for unrestricted support for the library; $1,500,000 from Douglas C. Mills of Champaign, chairman of First Busey Corporation, and his wife, Linda, to endow the football program’s head-coaching position; and $1,250,000 from Audrey S. Hodgins of Urbana, whose late husband, Frank, was professor emeritus in American literature at the university, to create a chair in American literature at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

U. of North Alabama: $1,000,000 from Herbert L. Raburn of Birmingham, Ala., owner of Ralaco Ventures, and his wife, Gay, to construct a wing at the College of Business.

U. of North Florida: $1,000,000 from Delores Kesler of Jacksonville, Fla., chairman of the employment agency AccuStaff, to endow scholarships for students from Raines High School in Jacksonville.

U. of Oregon: $1,500,000 from Elizabeth (B.J.) Hulteng of Spokane, Wash., whose late husband, John, was a dean of journalism at the university, and their children, Robert, Richard, and Karen, to endow a chair in media ethics and responsibility.

U. of Southern Mississippi: $1,100,000 from Wright W. (Bill) Cross of Baker, La., former owner of three chemical-engineering companies, and his wife, Annie Rea, to augment a charitable remainder unitrust that endows scholarships in mathematics. The value of the trust now stands at $3,250,000.

Union College (N.Y.): $3,000,000 bequest from the estate of Benjamin A. Brown of Hackettstown, N.J., a retired supervisor at Metropolitan Life Insurance, for unrestricted use.

Whitman-Walker Clinic (D.C.): $1,000,000 from Elizabeth (Beano) Solomon of McLean, Va., for a new referral service and to shorten the wait for appointments at this AIDS facility.