Michigan Hospital Lands $30 Million for Emergency Room and Women’s Health-Care Services
The late Michigan businessman Steve Stolaruk’s bequest will help Trinity Health Oakland Hospital expand services and support future construction projects.
February 24, 2025 | Read Time: 3 minutes
A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:
Trinity Health Michigan
Steve Stolaruk left $30 million to support the expansion of Trinity Health Oakland Hospital’s emergency department and its women’s health services. The bequest will also be used for future renovations or construction projects associated with the hospital.
Stolaruk was a Rochester, Mich., businessman and real estate developer who died in 2018. The gift comes to the hospital after a complicated legal fight over Stolaruk’s estate and that of his late wife, Vivian, who died in 2003.
California College of the Arts
Jen-Hsun and Lori Huang gave $22.5 million through their Jen-Hsun and Lori Huang Foundation to help address the San Francisco art school’s current budget deficit and help put the struggling college on a firmer financial footing in the future.
Jen-Hsun Huang founded and leads Nvidia Corporation, a company that develops software and microchips for artificial-intelligence applications. He is credited with modernizing computer graphics and helping to advance the gaming market. Before founding Nvidia in 1993, he worked at LSI Logic and Advanced Micro Devices.
Grinnell College
Ann Bowers left $10 million through her Robert N. Noyce Trust to support the computer science department, scientific research, scholarships, and other programs. Of the total, $4 million will be used to establish the Robert N. Noyce ’49 and Ann Bowers Endowed Chair in Computer Science, and $2 million apiece will create three endowed funds: one to support interdisciplinary projects, another to pay for maintaining and upgrading equipment, and the third to back scholarships.
Bowers led human resources at Intel Corporation in the 1970s and was one of Apple’s first vice presidents in the 1980s. Her late husband, Robert Noyce, a physicist, co-inventor of the integrated circuit, and co-founder of Intel, graduated from Grinnell in 1949. He died in 1990 and Bowers died in January at 86.
Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center
Jim and Christina Grote gave $10 million to support the Center for Integrative Health, which provides a holistic approach to health and wellness. Of the total, $4.5 million will be used to establish an endowed chair in Integrative Health, $4 million will create the Center for Integrative Health Faculty Recruitment, Education and Innovation Fund, and $1.5 million will establish a professorship in integrative health education.
Jim Grote founded Donatos Pizza in 1963 in Columbus, Ohio, and expanded the business to include Donatos Pizza franchises throughout Ohio. He also invented a machine to slice and apply pepperoni directly to pizza and founded the JE Grote Company, a food-processing equipment company, in 1972.
Texas Tech University
John and Paige Bick gave $5 million to revive the once-dormant Construction Engineering Technology program, which will be named for the donors and housed in the Edward E. Whitacre Jr. College of Engineering.
John Bick was a first-generation student who graduated with his bachelor’s degree in construction engineering technology in 1989 before the program was dissolved. After graduating from the program, he joined TXU Energy and its predecessor companies and worked in business development and management roles. He established the company’s Priority Power division, which provides the company’s clients with energy management services, in 2003.
To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated regularly.