A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:
Franciscan University of Steubenville
Edward (Ward) and Kathryn Fitzgerald gave $10 million to establish and endow the Ward and Kathy Fitzgerald Franciscan University Homeland Mission, a program aimed at preparing the Catholic university’s students for careers in Washington and teaching them how to advocate for the Catholic Church’s teachings within the nation’s legislative and political process.
The money will also be used to support internship and job-placement programs, opportunities for professional networking and personal development, and continuing education and Catholic faith-formation programs.
Ward Fitzgerald founded EQT Exeter, a global real-estate investment, management, and development company focused on industrial, office, life science, and residential properties. Before founding the firm in 2006, he served on the senior management team at Rouse/Liberty Property Trust, a real estate investment trust he helped take public in 1994.
Arizona State University Foundation, Arizona PBS
Susan Hart-Wadley and Searle Wadley gave $10 million to build a new broadcast tower for the public television station, support a new national science TV show, and expand the station’s educational programming. Arizona PBS is affiliated with the university and housed at its Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
The retired couple spent their careers working for the pharmaceutical giant Abbott Laboratories. Searle Wadley started his career with Abbott as a microbiologist and later directed the company’s corporate compliance and corporate quality assurance divisions, while Susan Hart-Wadley served as a human resources manager.
University of California at Davis Children’s Hospital
Phela Vesci left $8 million to support the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit, the pediatric and cardiac intensive care unit, the pediatric heart center, and the pediatric gastroenterology division, and establish pulmonary function testing and sleep apnea testing programs.
Vesci, who died in 2022 at 98, was the widow of Victor Vesci, a businessman who founded Victory Building Maintenance, a company that maintained many of the commercial and office buildings in downtown Sacramento. He also owned, managed, and played for a minor league baseball team. He died in 2009 at 94.
Indiana University Health and Indiana University School of Medicine
John and Sarah Lechleiter pledged $6 million to support cardiovascular care and research within the medical school’s Cardiovascular Institute. The money will be used to back efforts to improve patient care and physician training, and to support a new faculty chair in cardiovascular care.
John Lechleiter is a retired chairman, president, and CEO of the pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Company. He retired in 2016 after more than 37 years at the company. He began his work there as an organic chemist in 1979. Sarah Lechleiter is a founding member and former chair of the United Way of Central Indiana’s Women United, which has advocated for early childhood education and gender equity programs.
Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania
Stephen Jones and Melanie Sanchez-Jones gave $5.6 million to endow scholarships, experiential learning opportunities, and faculty support within the university’s honors college, which will be renamed the Eileen G. Jones Honors College, in homage to Stephen Jones’ late mother, whom he credits with pushing him to do well in college.
Jones is a former president and CEO of Covanta Holding Corporation, an industrial waste-management services company, in Morristown, N.J. He graduated from the university’s Bloomsburg campus in 1983 with a bachelor’s degree in economics and went on to earn an MBA from Temple University and a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania.
He started his career practicing corporate law at Dechert LLP, a law firm in Philadelphia, and in 1992 joined Air Products and Chemicals, an industrial gas and chemicals supplier, where he served in a variety of executive roles including president of the company’s China division. He left the company after 22 years to join Covanta.
Pomona College
Sam and Emily Glick pledged nearly $2.5 million to support financial aid for students from middle-income families and academic enrichment and career-development programs for such students. The couple are Pomona alumni who graduated in 2004.
Sam Glick is an executive at Kaiser Permanente’s Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals. He grew up on a citrus nursery in Southern California and earned an economics degree at Pomona College and then attended University of Warwick, in England, to further his studies. He started his career in the technology sector and helped build the strategy and corporate development division at Mercer, an employer benefits broker and consultancy. He later led the global health and life sciences business at Oliver Wyman, a management consulting firm in Washington.
Emily Glick started her career at Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants, where she worked for 14 years managing hotels in San Francisco. In 2021, she became a co-owner and led the renovation and re-launch of the Stavrand, a historic luxury retreat and inn in Guerneville, Calif., formerly known as the Applewood Inn.
The Glicks gave the college $625,000 in 2019 to establish and endow the Faculty Fund for Creative Collaboration, which supports cross-disciplinary research collaborations.
To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated regularly.
