Gifts Roundup: University of California at Irvine Gets $30 Million for New Science Building

Karey Michelle Photography

A roundup of notable gifts compiled by The Chronicle:

Mercy Housing

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen donated $30 million through his family foundation to design and build a housing and family service center in the Seattle area.

The center will serve about 100 homeless families with children in the Seattle area and will open in about two years. The city is contributing $5 million.

Mr. Allen has given extensively to local nonprofits and has appeared on The Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50 report of the most generous donors every year since 2002, most recently for the $295 million he gave to nonprofits in 2016.

University of California at Irvine

Henry and Susan Samueli gave $30 million through their foundation to help pay for a new science building.

Mr. Samueli co-founded the semiconductor corporation Broadcom. He also serves as an adjunct professor in the university’s electrical engineering and computer-science department.

Half of the new building will be devoted to engineering. The physical sciences will take up about one-third of the building, and information and computer sciences will fill the rest. Graduate students from all three schools will work together in laboratories, offices, and meeting areas.

The Samuelis have been longtime supporters of the university. They gave $20 million for the Henry Samueli School of Engineering in 1999, and they donated $5.7 million to establish the Susan Samueli Center for Integrative Medicine in 2001.

Vanderbilt University

Siblings Robin Ingram Patton, John Ingram, and Orrin Ingram donated $20 million to name a new building for their late father, Bronson Ingram, who served on the Board of Trust for nearly three decades and led the board from 1991 to 1995, the year he died.

John Ingram, chairman of Ingram Industries, earned an MBA from Vanderbilt in 1986 and serves on the university’s Board of Trust; and Orrin Ingram, president and CEO, earned a bachelor’s degree there in 1982.

Las Positas College Foundation

Two late leaders of community colleges, David and Barbara Mertes, left $6.85 million to establish three endowments for scholarships.

One will support students transferring to a four-year institution and studying the performing arts; another will back students transferring to a four-year institution with any major and will include financial aid for one male and one female basketball team members. The third endowment will support students working toward an Associate of Arts degree in the allied health field.

Mr. Mertes served in top education positions, including chancellor of the California Community College system from 1988 to 1996, chancellor of the Los Rios Community College District, and president of the College of San Mateo, among other posts. He died in 2014.

Ms. Mertes helped found the college and served as its district vice chancellor and later on the Chabot-Las Positas Community College Board of Trustees. She died in 2015.

Marquette University Law School

Sheldon and Marianne Lubar gave $5.5 million to establish the Lubar Center for Public Policy Research and Civic Education.

The gift will support the center’s public-policy research programs and civic-education work. The couple gave the law school $1.5 million in 2010.

Mr. Lubar founded Lubar & Company, an investment firm.

Salisbury University

Dave and Patsy Rommel pledged $5.5 million to build the Center for Entrepreneurship and other programs. Mr. Rommel leads Rommel USA, founded by his father in 1956 as Rommel Electric.

The center is scheduled to open in 2020 and will include a shared workspace for student entrepreneurs and space for robotics, small-product assembly, and a textile workshop for fashion and theater creations. An on-site store will sell products developed through the center.

University of Vermont Foundation

Martin Cohen and his wife, Michele Resnick Cohen, donated $5 million to renovate the Elihu B. Taft School and turn it into a center for the creative arts.

The space will include galleries, studios, classrooms, and exhibition and performance spaces for art, art history, dance, theater, music, film, and television programs.

Mr. Cohen is chairman of Cohen & Steers, an investment company. Ms. Resnick Cohen graduated form the university in 1972 and is a member of the UVM Foundation Board of Directors.

To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated throughout the week.