$50-Million Awarded to Hospital; Other Gifts

Six institutions have received big gifts:

• Saddleback Memorial Foundation, in Laguna Hills, Calif., has received $50-million from Bill and Louise Meiklejohn to expand and upgrade medical laboratories, computer systems, and facilities at Saddleback Memorial Medical Center. The foundation has received $28-million in cash and the rest will come from a charitable remainder trust. Mr. Meiklejohn, who is retired, was a manager at the defense company Northrop Grumman, and the couple inherited most of their money from Mr. Meiklejohn’s father, a major stockholder in United Parcel Service.
• Clarkson University, in Potsdam, N.Y., has received a $27-million bequest from Helen Snell Cheel, of Ho-Ho-Kus, N.J., who died in March. Approximately $16-million will support the university’s endowment, while the remainder will fulfill previous pledges to campus facilities. Mrs. Cheel also left $16.5-million to the Emma Willard School, in Troy, N.Y., for its endowment. Mrs. Cheel, who graduated from Emma Willard in 1923, inherited some of her wealth from her father, Bertrand H. Snell, a U.S. congressman and businessman who lived in Potsdam. Her late husband, Harold W. Cheel, was an engineer and real-estate developer.
• Richard Farmer, founder and chairman of the Cintas Corporation, a uniform and supply company in Cincinnati, and his wife, Joyce, have given $30-million to Miami University, in Oxford, Ohio. The bulk of the gift will pay for a new building to house the Richard T. Farmer School of Business, and $5-million will go to the business school’s endowment. Mr. Farmer graduated from the university in 1956 and his wife graduated in 1957.
• Ira and Mary Lou Fulton have donated $15-million to Brigham Young University, in Provo, Utah, to establish endowments at the colleges of family, home, and social sciences; health and human performance; and humanities. The endowments will support internships, scholarships, student research, and other needs. Mr. Fulton is president and chief executive officer of Fulton Homes, in Tempe, Ariz.
• Brandeis University, in Waltham, Mass., will receive $12-million over the next three years from Michael Steinhardt, and his wife, Judy, for a research institute that will collect and analyze data about American Jews. Mr. Steinhardt, the retired founder and manager of Steinhardt Partners, a now-defunct New York hedge fund, and chairman of the Jewish Life Network/Steinhardt Foundation, in New York, is a member of the university’s Board of Trustees.

Other recent gifts:

Chapman U. (Orange, Calif.): $2-million from Chuck and Twyla Reed Martin, of Laguna Beach, Calif., to endow a fund at the Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. Mr. Martin, a university trustee, is the retired founder of Enterprise Partners, a venture-capital firm in La Jolla, Calif., and co-founder of Westar Capital, in Costa Mesa, Calif.

Collin County Community College (Plano, Tex.): $1-million bequest from Royden L. Lebrecht, a land developer in Tucson, to endow a chair at the Center for Scholarly and Civic Engagement. A portion of the money will be used for student scholarships.

Goucher College (Baltimore): $2-million pledge from Adrienne Arsht, chairman of TotalBank, in Miami, to establish a program on ethics and leadership in honor of her mother, Roxana Cannon Arsht, a judge in Delaware and a 1935 graduate of Goucher. Ms. Arsht made the pledge through the Arsht-Cannon Fund, part of the Delaware Community Foundation, in Wilmington.

Madison Children’s Museum (Wis.): $5-million pledge from W. Jerome Frautschi to help the museum move to a larger and newly renovated building. Mr. Frautschi is the former owner of Webcrafters, a printing press in Madison, and the founder and chairman of the Overture Foundation, which works to revitalize the arts and culture venues and programs in Madison.

Mars Hill College (N.C.): $1-million pledge from Justus Ammons, founder of Ammons Construction, in Raleigh, N.C., and a trustee of the college, to renovate dormitories and other campus buildings and upgrade athletics facilities.

U. of Arkansas at Fayetteville: $5-million pledge from J.B. and Johnelle Hunt, founders of J.B. Hunt Transport Services, a freight-transport company in Lowell, Ark., to construct an academic building.

Villanova U. (Pa.): $6-million from James C. Curvey, former president and chief operating officer of Fidelity Investments, in Boston, for scholarships for students from Pennsylvania’s coal-mining regions. Mr. Curvey graduated from Villanova in 1957.