Conservation Group Receives $35-Million for Biology Center; Other Gifts

Several non-profit institutions have received big gifts.

* Conservation International, a Washington organization dedicated to preserving biological diversity, has received $35-million from Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel Corporation, and his wife, Betty.

The gift will establish the Center for Applied Biodiversity Science, in Washington. The center will bring together fellows from several disciplines to examine ways to sustain life in ecosystems threatened by natural phenomena and human encroachment.

* The Metropolitan Opera, in New York, has received two big gifts for its endowment campaign. Alberto W. Vilar, chief executive officer of Amerindo Investment Advisors, has pledged an unrestricted $20-million, and an additional $5-million if other donors match that amount. In addition, George Lindemann, chairman of the Southern Union Company, and his wife, Frayda, have given $10-million for the opera’s Young Artist Development Program.

* The California Institute of Technology, in Pasadena, will receive $18-million from Eli Broad, chairman of the financial-services company SunAmerica, to create a biological-sciences center.

The Broad Center for the Biological Sciences will provide space and equipment for 10 research teams. Mr. Broad’s gift was made as part of a larger fund-raising effort at Caltech to understand brain behavior, disease, evolution, and genetics.

The donation comprises $9-million from Mr. Broad’s personal fortune and $9-million from the recently established Broad Foundation. The new fund is supported solely by donations from Mr. Broad, as are two other foundations in Los Angeles that were created by the philanthropist in 1967 and 1980.

Other recent gifts:

Amherst College (Mass.): $3,000,000 from Harry V. Keefe, Jr., chairman of Keefe Managers, a money-management company, for the capital campaign.

California State U. at Long Beach: $3,700,000 from E. James Brotman of South Bay, Cal., a retired physician, and his wife, Virginia, for scholarships.

Centre College (Ky.): $3,000,000 bequest from the estate of Clarence Jones of Louisville, Ky., an investment banker, for a visual-arts center and for renovations to two dormitories.

New York U.: $5,000,000 from Jerome H. Kern of Castle Rock, Colo., vice-chairman of Tele-Communications Inc., for scholarships for students at the School of Law who are pursuing careers in public service.

Pennsylvania State U.: $7,500,000 from J. Lloyd Huck of Morristown, N.J., retired chairman of Merck & Company, and his wife, Dorothy, to endow biotechnology research, to augment three previously established professorships, and to create three scholarship funds.

Saint Francis Foundation (Cal.): $3,000,000 bequest from the estate of John Stoddard of Des Moines, a real-estate developer and investor, for endowment.

Spring Hill College (Ala.): $3,000,000 from Arthur Outlaw of Mobile, Ala., a businessman and former mayor of Mobile, and his wife, Dorothy, for endowment.

Texas Tech U.: $1,000,000 from Ed Benninger of San Antonio, president of Valero Energy Corporation, and his wife, Nelda, for the colleges of business administration and of arts and sciences; $1,000,000 from Phil Price of Lubbock, Tex., president of Price Communications Group, and his wife, Victoria, for the School of Mass Communications and the Vietnam Center; and $1,000,000 from John Walker of Houston, president of EnerVest Management Company, and his wife, Lisa, for a professorship at the College of Business Administration.

Thomas Jefferson U. (Pa.): Gift annuity valued at $2,316,000 from an anonymous donor to establish a professorship in surgery at Jefferson Medical College; a $2,300,000 bequest from the estate of Sidney Rosenbluth of New York, a retired physician, for the department of medicine; a $1,650,000 bequest from the estate of Philip D. Gilbert of Camden, N.J., a retired radiologist, for the medical college; and a charitable remainder trust valued at $1,560,000 from J. Wallace Davis of Gladwyne, Pa., a retired plastic surgeon, and his wife, Gail, for the medical college.

Virginia Tech: $2,700,000 bequest from the estate of Patricia Bonsall Stuart of Batesville, Va., a horse breeder, for programs to promote equine health at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine.

Wayne State U. (Mich.): $5,000,000 from Eugene Applebaum of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., founder of Arbor Drugs, to construct a new facility for the College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions.