A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:
City of Hope
Emmet Stephenson Jr. and his daughter, Tessa Stephenson Brand, pledged $150 million to establish the Stephenson Prize, a $1 million annual award to a scientist or team of scientists making the most promising advancements in pancreatic cancer research and treatments. The prize is open to researchers around the world; the first Stephenson Prize will be awarded in 2025.
The money will also establish the Stephenson Fellows Program for pancreatic cancer researchers; launch the Stephenson Pancreatic Cancer Research Symposium, which will promote scientific collaboration; and support a facility that collects tissues, blood, and other materials needed for pancreatic cancer research. The money will be paid out over the next decade.
Stephenson founded Stephenson and Company, a private investment firm, and he leads Stephenson Ventures, a private equity firm. Along with his late wife, Toni Stephenson, he founded a dozen real estate, technology, and publishing businesses. Tessa Stephenson Brand founded Tessa Lyn Events, a Brentwood, Calif., wedding and event planning company. Father and daughter are giving the gift to honor Toni Stephenson, who after surviving lymphoma, died from pancreatic cancer in 2020.
Museum of Arts and Sciences
Cici and Hyatt Brown pledged $150 million to construct a new building to house the Daytona Beach, Fla., museum’s collections and exhibits, plus a black-box theater and additional spaces. The money will also be used to renovate the museum’s existing building and turn it into a children’s science center, with space for classrooms and administrative offices. Of the total, $25 million will match gifts from other donors.
Hyatt Brown retired as CEO of his insurance agency, Brown & Brown, in 2009. He served in the Florida House of Representatives for the 31st district, as a Democrat, serving from 1972 to 1980. From 1978 to 1980, he was speaker of the Florida House of Representatives. In 2012, the Browns gave the organization $13 million to build the Cici and Hyatt Brown Museum of Art to house the Brown’s collection of more than 2,600 paintings of Florida.
University of Illinois at Chicago
Herbert and Carol Reztky left $36 million to the College of Pharmacy to expand scholarships and support other programs. The college has been renamed Herbert M. and Carol H. Retzky College of Pharmacy in recognition of the bequest.
Both Herbert’s father and Carol’s father were both pharmacists. Once Herbert earned his degree from the pharmacy school in 1946, the couple took over the operations of Herbert’s father’s pharmacy on the South Side of Chicago. They sold that pharmacy in 1957 and bought another one in the city’s Galewood neighborhood. Together they ran the business for many years while also investing in the stock market.
Herbert Retzky was closely involved with the pharmacy school. For 25 years, he attended a continuing education program on infectious diseases hosted by the pharmacy school, and served as an alumni representative on several committees there helping to evaluate courses and guide the curriculum. Herbert died in 2017 and Carol passed in 2019.
Dartmouth College
Thomas and Gina Russo gave $30 million to back the college’s plans to build more student housing for undergraduates. An apartment-style residence hall for juniors and seniors that is currently under construction will be named for the couple and is scheduled to open in 2026. Russo Hall is the first of several new residence halls the university plans to build in the coming years. The couple’s donation kicked off a fundraising campaign to raise $165 million from other donors to build the others.
The couple are Dartmouth alumni and both graduated in 1977. Thomas Russo is portfolio manager and partner at the Lancaster, Pa., investment firm Gardner Russo & Quinn. He earned a bachelor’s degree in history and went on to earn a law degree and an MBA from Stanford University. Gina Russo earned a degree in Russian and then worked as an assistant vice president in international banking at Wells Fargo. The Russos met during the fall of their first semester at Dartmouth.
Hoag Hospital Foundation
Carole Pickup, her daughter and son-in-law Devon and Kevin Martin, and her son and daughter-in-law Todd and Natalie Pickup, gave $25 million to establish the CareMar Recovery Center, an addiction-treatment center that will house both residential and outpatient services for people struggling with drug and alcohol addiction. The new center will include home-like living quarters for residential patients, private consultation rooms, and indoor and outdoor communal spaces that promote wellness and collaboration.
The Pickup family are longtime supporters of Hoag Hospital, and Devon Martin serves on the foundation’s Board of Directors. In 2023, Carole Pickup and her late husband, Richard, gave the foundation $50 million to establish the Richard H. Pickup Center for Brain Health, and in 2017 they gave the foundation $10 million to support clinical research and treatment programs at the neuroscience institute at Hoag Hospital Presbyterian. Richard Pickup founded Eagle Four Partners, a private equity firm in Newport Beach that is now led by Todd Pickup and Kevin Martin. He died in April at 90.
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Orland Bethel pledged $18.5 million through his Orland Bethel Family Foundation to establish the Orland Bethel Musculoskeletal Research Center Biobank, a biological-specimen repository that will collect, house, and distribute specimens that researchers will use to shed light on disorders such as arthritis, osteoporosis, and a range of spinal conditions, and help develop treatments for these often painful conditions.
Bethel founded Hillandale Farms, which produces chicken eggs, in 1958 in Greensburg, Pa. Bethel credits doctors at the medical school with helping him when he was suffering with debilitating spinal pain. He was relieved of his pain, and his function and motion were restored after he underwent surgery and treatment at the university’s medical center.
This is his third donation to the medical school. He gave the institution $25 million last year to create the Bethel Musculoskeletal Research Center, and a previous $2 million gift to create the Orland Bethel Professorship in Spine Surgery.
University of Colorado at Boulder
Michael Klump gave $15 million, about $13 million of which will support the real estate center in the Leeds School of Business, and endow three professorships in real estate finance, and establish four funds to endow academics, scholarships, and career-related and business and alumni programs. The remaining $2 million will go to student health and wellness programs in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Klump founded and is chairman of RCG Ventures, a commercial real estate investment firm in Atlanta; and Argonne Capital Group, a private investment firm specializing in restaurant, retail, and service industry companies. He also co-founded Equity Investment Group, a private real estate investment trust focused on shopping centers. Klump attended the university, and the real estate center will be renamed for him.
To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated regularly.
