A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:
University of Michigan Medicine
Kenneth Eisenberg gave $40 million through the Frances and Kenneth Eisenberg Charitable Foundation for a range of programs. Eisenberg is giving $25 million to back the construction of a specialty outpatient healthcare center in Troy, Mich., scheduled to open in 2027, and $15 million to support mental health research at the Frances and Kenneth Eisenberg and Family Depression Center.
He and his late wife, Frances, provided the seed funding for the depression center when they donated $10 million in 2016; they gave an additional $20 million to support the center in 2021.
This latest gift will also be used to establish two new medical school professorships focused on depression research: the Frances Aftel Eisenberg Research Professorship and the Sue Ellen Eisenberg Research Professorship. Sue Ellen Eisenberg is the donor’s sister, an alum of the university’s law school, and managing partner of the Sue Ellen Eisenberg and Associates law firm, in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.
Kenneth Eisenberg retired as chairman and CEO after five decades with Kenwal Steel, his family’s steel-processing company. He and Frances earned bachelor’s degrees from the university in 1964 and, with this latest donation, they have given more than $80 million to their alma mater to support historical studies and biomedical research. Frances Eisenberg died last year at 82.
Stanford University
Larry Leinweber gave $24 million through his Leinweber Foundation to endow the Leinweber Institute for Theoretical Physics at Stanford. The donation follows $90 million he gave last month to establish five other Leinweber Institutes at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of California at Berkeley, University of Chicago, University of Michigan, and the Institute for Advanced Study, in Princeton, N.J.
Leinweber founded and led New World Systems Corporation, a Troy, Mich., software company that provides city and county governments with planning and public safety software for 911 dispatch centers, law enforcement, fire departments, and paramedics.
The six new Leinweber Institutes are designed to foster independent research and cross-institutional collaborations that will support graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty researching fundamental questions about the universe.
Northwood University
Daniel and Pamella DeVos pledged $20 million through their Daniel and Pamella DeVos Foundation to establish a fund to support academic programs, scholarships, faculty recruitment efforts, varsity sports and clubs, and other campus programs. The money will also be used to launch a venture fund aimed at helping students develop business ideas.
Daniel DeVos is president and CEO of DP Fox Ventures, a Grand Rapids, Mich., chain of auto dealerships, and a partner in CWD Real Estate Investment, a real estate management firm. He also serves as chairman of the Orlando Magic professional basketball team. DeVos is an heir to the DeVos family fortune, built by his father, Richard DeVos, founder of the multi-level marketing company Amway. Pamella DeVos is a fashion designer who founded Pamella Roland, a line of evening wear. She started her career in public relations.
University of Kansas School of Medicine
David and Katrina Sietz pledged $15 million to expand the Joseph and Berenice Seitz Medical Scholarship, which provides financial aid to in-state medical students from Ellsworth, Kan., and those who plan to go into family practice. The couple established the scholarship fund in 1993. Joseph and Berenice Seitz are David Sietz’s late parents. Joseph Seitz was a family physician in Ellsworth and Bernice Seitz was a nurse.
Like his father, David Sietz has a medical degree, but he has had a varied career. He earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry at the university in 1970 and a doctorate in organic chemistry at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. He first worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University and as an assistant professor of chemistry at Northeastern University. Sietz then earned a medical degree, specializing in oncology, and went on to join the oncology division at the pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly. He later became a professor of medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine and co-founded a small biotechnology company.
David Dietz’s family has deep roots in Ellsworth. His great-great-grandfather, George Seitz, was a German immigrant who settled in Ellsworth in 1864 when it was still a military fort. A pharmacy apprentice in Germany, he founded Seitz Pharmacy, which still serves Ellsworth residents today.
Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine
Helen and Arthur Spurr Jr. left $15 million to establish the Helen Dessin Spurr and Frank Arthur Spurr Jr. Endowed Research Fund for Domestic Canine and Feline Pets, which will support clinical trials and the development of new treatments and diagnostic procedures for dogs and cats.
Helen Dessin Spurr worked as a systems engineer for IBM for 38 years before retiring in 1984. She died in 2023 at 98. Her husband, Arthur Spurr Jr., was a telecommunications executive. He worked for AT&T in New York and for the C&P Telephone Companies. He served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps during World War II and was instrumental in designing the first Washington, D.C., metropolitan-area amateur radio repeater system. He died in 2011 at 87.
Georgetown University Law Center
Alfred Moses gave $10 million to back scholarships and other support for law students who plan to pursue careers in public service. He said in a news release that he hopes his gift will make it more financially feasible for students to take public interest jobs.
“There is a great need for public service in our country,” Moses said. “The private sector is very financially attractive to law graduates, but public service is so important for the future of our country.”
Moses is a lawyer who was a partner at the law firm Covington & Burling, in Washington, for six decades and worked in public service as well. He was a special advisor to President Jimmy Carter and was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Romania from 1994 to 1997 and the Presidential Emissary for the Cyprus Conflict from 1999 to 2001. He earned a law degree from Georgetown in 1956 while serving as a U.S. Naval officer.
To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated regularly.
