Wayne State U. Gets $50 Million From Former Instructor Turned Auto Executive

A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:

Wayne State University

James and Patricia Anderson gave $50 million to support a range of programs in the College of Engineering, which will be renamed for the Andersons. The money will go toward recruiting more faculty and Ph.D. students; expanding research in mobility, energy storage, artificial intelligence, and other growing fields; and supporting career-related programs for undergraduates.

James Anderson leads Urban Science, an automotive consultancy and technology firm in Detroit. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering from Wayne State in 1966 and 1970, respectively, and started his career as an instructor at the College of Engineering. While there, Anderson developed environmental models and computer-mapping techniques to display data, which became part of his company’s business model.

In 2014, the Andersons gave the university $25 million to establish the James and Patricia Anderson Engineering Ventures Institute, which aims to help students and faculty create their own businesses.

Temple University

Sidney and Caroline Kimmel pledged $27.5 million to support the construction of a new home for the Klein College of Media and Communication and the Center for the Performing and Cinematic Arts. It will be named the Caroline Kimmel Pavilion for Arts and Communication.

The Kimmels are longtime donors to organizations in Philadelphia, where the university is located and where Sidney Kimmel grew up in humble circumstances during the Great Depression. Kimmel served two tours of duty in the U.S. Army and studied at Temple briefly before starting his career as an inventory clerk in the garment business and as a traveling salesman for a women’s wear manufacturer. By 1959, he had joined the knitwear company Villager and eventually became its president and CEO.

He founded the Jones Apparel Group in 1970 and took the company public in 1991. He stepped down as CEO in 2002 and served as chairman until 2014, when he sold the company to private-equity firm Sycamore Partners for nearly $2.2 billion. He later founded two film-production companies, Sidney Kimmel Entertainment and SK Global, through which he has produced several feature films, including The Kite Runner, Moneyball, and Crazy Rich Asians.

The Kimmels have given more than $500 million to nonprofits since 2001, and they have appeared on the Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50 list of the biggest donors five times. They primarily support cancer research and patient care and have also given large gifts to cultural institutions in Philadelphia.

Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Niles and Nancy Noblitt gave $10 million to establish the Noblitt Entrepreneurship Program, which will focus on fostering entrepreneurship and provide students opportunities to work with faculty to learn about free-market principles.

Niles Noblitt graduated from the university in 1973 with a degree in biological engineering. He co-founded Biomet Inc., a biomedical-device company in Warsaw, Ind., that is now known as Zimmer Biomet. He said in a news release that he credits his Rose-Hulman education with shaping his problem-solving skills. He retired from the company in 2007.

University of New Haven

Dennis Martin gave $10 million to help pay for the construction of a building to house the Pompea College of Business. Along with classrooms, lecture halls, and faculty offices, the new facility will include a simulated financial trading room, a business-analytics and an AI lab, a student-research lab, and a student-run cafe that will be operated by hospitality and tourism-management students.

Martin is chairman of Federal Signal Corporation, an industrial manufacturer in Downers Grove, Ill. He served as the company’s president and CEO from 2010 to 2015. He previously held executive positions at Ingersoll-Rand and Illinois Toolworks. He led the turnaround of the General Binding Corporation, a Northbrook, Ill., manufacturer of business machines and supplies. Martin earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering and management from the university in 1981.

Rush University Medical Center

Tim and Keli Walbert gave $8.25 million to the Department of Orthopedics to support the work of the research teams led by three orthopedic surgeons who have cared for the Walbert family over the past 14 years: Dr. Brian Forsythe, Dr. Frank Phillips, and Dr. Craig Della Valle. The teams are developing new treatments for chronic musculoskeletal diseases.

Tim and Keli Walbert are biopharmaceutical executives. Tim Walbert founded Horizon Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company with headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, that developed treatments for rare, autoimmune, and inflammatory diseases. Amgen acquired it in 2023 for $27.8 billion. He currently serves as an adviser to Amgen. Keli Walbert was an executive vice president at Horizon who led commercial strategy and organizational development for many of the company’s brands.

The couple’s connection to Rush began in 2011 when Tim Walbert needed care for hip pain caused by an autoimmune disease. Della Valle performed Walbert’s hip replacement. Years later, Walbert returned to Rush for knee surgery performed by Forsythe and a spinal fusion performed by Phillips.

To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated regularly.