A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:
University of Notre Dame
Kenneth and Susan Meyer gave $15 million to expand Business on the Frontlines, a program that provides MBA students with opportunities to collaborate with international humanitarian groups, multinational corporations, and other organizations.
Kenneth Meyer retired as chairman and CEO of Lincoln Capital Management Company in 2004. He started the Chicago firm’s fixed-income management organization in 1981 and negotiated the sale of the company in 2004. He graduated from the university in 1966.
Clayton State University
Lon Carnes left $5 million to create the Alma Karen Cousins & Maurine Cousins Carnes Endowment for Music.
Carnes served for 27 years as a professor and later chair of Georgia Southern University’s Parker College of Business. He loved music and regularly attended concerts at Clayton State’s performing arts venue, Spivey Hall, where he was also was a member of the Spivey Hall Friends, a donor group established in 2002. He died last year.
Brock University
Stephanie Mitchell bequeathed $2.7 million to establish the Dr. Gerald B. Mitchell Centre of Excellence in Career & Experiential Education.
Stephanie Mitchell, who died in 2019, was married to the center’s namesake, Gerald Mitchell, the late chairman and chief executive of Dana Corporation, a Canadian manufacturer of automobile and related equipment.
Gerald Mitchell, a dual U.S. and Canadian citizen, dropped out of high school when he was 16 and went to work for the company as a machine operator. He worked there for 45 years, moving up the ranks until taking the helm in 1980. He retired from the company in 1990. Brock awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1982.
Augustana University
Sanford and Mae (Ellis) Brakke left $1 million to back scholarships. Augustana alumnus Sanford Brakke died in 1989, and his wife, Mae, in 2013.
Sanford Brakke graduated from the university in 1928 and taught at schools in Geddes, Kadoka, and Presho, S.D., before becoming a rancher. Mae Brakke was also a teacher.
Of the total, $500,000 will endow scholarships for students in need of financial assistance, $250,000 will back students majoring in education, and the reminding $250,000 will go to students who have experienced an injury resulting in paraplegia or quadriplegia.
To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated throughout the week.
