A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:
Xavier University
Peter Klekamp and his family pledged $60 million, a planned gift, to support financial aid and scholarships, the Williams College of Business, and the Jesuit Catholic university’s basketball program.
Klekamp graduated from Xavier in 1994 and founded PLK Communities, a real estate management firm in Cincinnati. He joined the university’s Board of Trustees last year. His family’s connection to the university goes back decades.
His father, Donald Klekamp, graduated from Xavier in 1954 and went on to co-found Keating Muething & Klekamp, a Cincinnati law firm where he is a senior partner; and Donald Klekamp’s late brother, Robert Klekamp, PhD, was a professor of business administration at Xavier for many years. In addition, Peter Klekamp’s son Davis graduated from the university in 2022.
The family gave the university $10 million several years ago to build the Klekamp Family Training Center, a practice facility for the university’s basketball and volleyball teams.
Duke University
Bruce and Martha Karsh gave $25 million to establish the Karsh STEM+ Scholars Program, which will match undergraduate students who have declared majors in the science, technology, engineering, math, and economics with faculty in the university’s Pratt School of Engineering and Trinity College of Arts & Sciences. Together, the student-faculty pairs will conduct research, and students will be mentored by the faculty member with whom they are paired.
Of the total, $15 million will support financial aid for undergraduates who have declared STEM+ majors and who have demonstrated financial need. The remaining $10 million will back a faculty director to oversee the faculty mentors, pay for the evaluation of the impact of the program, support its expansion, and provide money to the students in their senior years for travel to conferences to present their research projects.
Bruce Karsh is a lawyer who co-founded Oaktree Capital Management, a Los Angeles investment firm. He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Duke in 1977. Martha Karsh is an attorney who co-founded Clark & Karsh, an architecture, design, and development firm in Los Angeles. The Karshes are minority co-owners of the Golden State Warriors basketball team.
They have given two previous donations to the university. They gave $50 million in 2011 to endow financial aid and several scholarship programs for undergraduates, and $20 million in 2008 to endow need-based scholarships and other support for undergraduate students from outside the United States, and to endow the Karsh International Scholars Program, which pays stipends to student researchers. They appeared on the Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50 list of the biggest donors in 2011.
City of Hope
Norman and Melinda Payson gave $20 million to create a pancreas center, where physician scientists will conduct research and work to develop new treatments for pancreatic cancer and diabetes.
Norman Payson is a physician who has led a number of healthcare companies in Orange County, Calif., including: Apria Healthcare Group, a home health-care provider; Concentra, an occupational health-care services business; and Oxford Health Plans. He also co-founded Healthsource, a health-care management company.
The Paysons have given several donations to the organization over the years, including $1 million in 2012 to establish a professorship in medicine. They gave their most recent donation to honor Norman Payson’s mother, who died of pancreatic cancer.
University of Vermont Grossman School of Business
Steven Grossman gave $15 million through his Grossman Family Foundation to launch an experiential co-op program that will provide students with opportunities to work for large companies in jobs that will help them hone their critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
Steven Grossman graduated from the business school in 1961 and served as CEO of Southern Container Corporation until its sale in 2008. He gave the university $20 million in 2015 to endow three faculty positions and support other programs. The business school was named for Grossman that year.
PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center Foundation
David and Patricia Nierenberg gave $10 million to complete the expansion and modernization of the medical center’s emergency department. This is their second donation to support that effort. They gave $10 million in 2021 for the renovations project.
David Nierenberg founded and leads Nierenberg Investment Management Company, an investment firm in Camas, Wash. He started his career at the management consultancy Bain & Company in 1978, and stayed there until 1985 when he left to work in venture capital investing. He served as a general partner at Trinity Ventures, a Menlo Park, Calif., venture capital firm and then launched his investment management company in 1996.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Stuart and Nancy Levenick gave $10 million to establish the Levenick Center for a Climate-Smart Circular Bioeconomy, which will be housed in the university’s Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment. Circular bioeconomy puts recycling and regeneration at the center of food production. Researchers at the new center will work on efforts to reduce the use of fossil fuels and synthetic chemicals in how we grow and process food.
Stuart Levenick retired in 2015 as a group president of Caterpillar, which manufactures heavy equipment for the construction, mining, and engineering industries. He held a variety of executive roles during his 37-year career there. Nancy Levenick taught high school English earlier in her career.
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Gené and Fred Klein gave $10 million to support scholarships, professorships, faculty recruitment efforts, and research programs in the newly established Klein College of Science. The Kleins cited their backgrounds in engineering and math as part of what inspired them to give the gift.
“Math and science are essential in cultivating critical thinking skills, regardless of a student’s future career path,” said Fred Klein in a news release. “I have used foundational principles I learned in physics and other science classes throughout my real estate career.”
He co-founded Childress Klein, a Charlotte, N.C., commercial real estate development firm in 1988, and got his start working for the real estate giant Trammell Crow in its Philadelphia offices in 1974. Gené Klein spent the early part of her career as a math teacher.
To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated regularly.
