Johns Hopkins U. Receives $58.5-Million for Cell Research; Other Large Gifts

Two universities have received big gifts:

• The Johns Hopkins University’s medical school has received $58.5-million from an anonymous donor to establish an Institute for Cell Engineering. The center will conduct basic stem-cell research and will study the ways in which re-engineered cells can be used to treat diseases and to assist with organ and tissue transplants.

  The State of Maryland will provide an additional $23.8-million to help construct a building for the institute and other basic research programs at the university. The facility is expected to be completed in 2003.

• The founder of Lands’ End and his wife have donated $20-million, and pledged up to an additional $1-million, to the University of Chicago. Gary C. and Frances Comer, of Chicago, made their donation to help build the Comer Children’s Hospital, which is expected to cost $130-million and be completed in 2004. The couple’s $1-million pledge will support the new hospital’s Gary Comer Family Resource Center.

Other recent gifts:

Babson College (Wellesley, Mass.):

$1-million from Richard W. Sorenson, an alumnus and chairman of Carling Technologies, a manufacturer of electrical components in Plainville, Conn., and his wife, Sandra, to help renovate and endow a studio-arts building.

Duke U. (Durham, N.C.): $10-million from Robert M. Bass, president of Keystone, an investment, acquisition, and merger-management company in Fort Worth, and his wife, Anne, to expand a program that offers small interdisciplinary classes to first-semester students, and to establish a year-long fellowship program that will train advanced graduate students to teach undergraduate classes in their field of research.

Fairfield U. (Conn.): $1-million from Wanda Russo, of Fairfield, to establish the Robert D. Russo Sr. Scholarship Fund in honor of her husband, a former chairman of the radiology department at St. Vincent’s Medical Center, in Bridgeport, Conn., and former university trustee, who died in 1999.

International Research and Exchange (Washington): $1-million from John J. Roberts, a longtime executive at the American International Group, an insurance and financial-services company in New York, and chairman of the IREX, and his wife, Nancy Lee Roberts, to support international research programs.

North Carolina School of the Arts (Winston-Salem): $1-million for endowment from Charlotte Hanes, president of River Ridge Cattle Company, in Mouth of Wilson, Va., and her husband, R. Philip Hanes Jr., chairman emeritus of the Hanes Companies, a fabric supplier, in Winston-Salem.

Norton Museum of Art (West Palm Beach, Fla.): $1-million from Valerie Delacorte, of North Palm Beach, Fla., whose late husband, George, founded Delacorte Publishing, for the George and Valerie Delacorte Gallery, which will exhibit the museum’s collection of Renaissance and Baroque art. Ms. Delacorte is a trustee of the museum.

Occidental College (Los Angeles): $1-million from Hermione K. Brown, a lawyer at Gang, Tyre, Ramer & Brown, in Beverly Hills, Calif., to support literature programs, in honor of her husband, Louis M. Brown, a professor of law, who died in 1996 at age 87.

Pine Crest Middle School (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.): $2.5-million from the parents of a current student, who wish to remain anonymous, to help expand a dining hall and construct a dance studio, an auditorium, and a classroom building.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America (New York): $1-million bequest from an anonymous donor for endowment.

Ripon College (Wis.): $1.5-million unrestricted bequest from Ken Falconer, of Menlo Park, Calif., a Ripon alumnus and a retired employee of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, in Washington, who invested much of his income. He died in 1994 at age 85.

Rowan U. (Glassboro, N.J.): $1.5-million from Keith Campbell, of Salem, N.J., chairman of the flooring manufacturer Mannington Mills and chairman of the university’s board of trustees, and his wife, Shirley, to endow the library; and $1-million from Mr. Campbell’s mother, Ann Campbell, of Salem, to establish the John B. Campbell Professorial Chair in the College of Business, in honor of her late husband, a former chairman of Mannington Mills.

Tufts U. (Medford/Somerville, Mass.): $2-million from Agnes Varis, president of Agvar Chemicals, a pharmaceutical company in New Jersey, to establish the Agnes Varis University Chair in Science and Society.

Tulane U. (New Orleans): $2.3-million bequest from Yvonne Arnoult Ryan, a former professor at Dillard University, in New Orleans, who received a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree from Tulane, and died in 1999, to endow a professorship in the university’s French program; and a $1.7-million pledge from Jim Clark, co-founder of Netscape, in Mountain View, Calif., to provide wireless computer access on campus.

U. of TexasSouthwestern (Dallas): $1.3-million bequest from Helen Dupies Bader, of Dallas, who died in August at age 86, to support the Simmons Arthritis Research Center.

U. of Washington (Seattle): $10-million pledge from Neal Dempsey, a partner at Bay Partners, a venture-capital company in Cupertino, Calif., and his wife, Janet, for research at the business school’s Program in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and for the university’s athletic programs.

U. of Wyoming (Laramie): $1-million pledge from Solomon D. Trujillo, of La Jolla, Calif., former chairman of US West, now part of Qwest Communications International, and current chairman of Graviton, an information-technology company in La Jolla, and his wife, Corinne, to endow the Solomon D. Trujillo Center for e-Business within the business school. Mr. Trujillo is a graduate of the university.

Washington College (Chestertown, Md.): $1-million pledge from Alonzo G. Decker Jr., of Baltimore, the retired chief executive officer of Black & Decker Corporation, to establish the Alonzo G. and Virginia G. Decker Chair in the Natural Sciences; and $1-million from Connie and Carl Ferris, of Rock Hall, Md., who own several Burger King restaurants, to establish a professorship in business management.