Several institutions have received large gifts:
- Children’s National Medical Center, in Washington, has received pledges of $25-million each from two local couples.
Stephen A. Goldberg, founder of a management company in Washington that bears his name, and his wife, Diana, chair of the hospital foundation’s board, plan to earmark the gift for specific purposes, but have not yet decided where the money should go.
Joseph E. and Jill Robert Jr., of McLean, Va., have earmarked their gift for the hospital’s surgical-care center. Mr. Robert, a member of the hospital’s board, founded the J.E. Robert Companies, an investment and real-estate company in McLean.
- Alberto W. Vilar, a New York investor, has pledged more than $23.4-million for a new performing-arts program at New York University.
The Alberto Vilar Global Fellows in the Performing Arts program will provide graduate-level training in acting, composition, dance, direction and design, instrumental music, interdisciplinary studies, voice, and writing. Up to 20 fellows -- half of them from outside the United States -- will be accepted each year and will each be eligible for up to $50,000 per year in scholarships and stipends.
Mr. Vilar founded Amerindo Investment Advisors, a technology-investment company in New York.
Other big gifts:
Greater Baltimore Medical Center Foundation (Baltimore):
$3-million bequest for unrestricted use from R. Manfred Kwasnik, a lawyer in Towson, Md., who died in 1999 at age 85, in honor of his late wife, Rita C. Kwasnik.
King’s College (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.): $2-million from an alumnus who wishes to remain anonymous, to help finance reconstruction of the college’s student center.
La Jolla Playhouse (California): $1-million from Audrey Geisel, of San Diego, whose late husband was Theodor Geisel, author of the Dr. Seuss books, to build two rehearsal rooms.
Maryland Institute College of Art (Baltimore): $5-million pledge from Eddie Brown, founder of Brown Capital Management, an investment-management company in Baltimore, and his wife, Sylvia, to help construct the Brown Center, which will house an auditorium and the college’s computer-design programs. In addition, the Browns will match up to $1-million raised from other sources to create an endowment fund for the building’s operating expenses.
Pennsylvania State U. (University Park): $1-million pledge from Cathleen McFarlane-Ross, of West Palm Beach, Fla., whose late husband, Norris (Mac) McFarlane, owned the Macalloy Corporation, in Charleston, S.C., for a professorship and a scholarship fund in materials science and engineering.
Samford U. (Birmingham, Ala.): $11-million bequest from Lucille Stewart Beeson, of Birmingham, who died in January at age 95, to endow scholarships at the university’s nursing school and to establish the Dwight and Lucille Beeson Exceptional Scholars Program, named for Mrs. Beeson and her late husband, a retired insurance executive. The scholars program will provide scholarships for 30 to 50 graduates of Alabama high schools each year.
Scripps Foundation for Medicine and Science (La Jolla, Calif.): $3-million in a charitable remainder trust from Leonard Polster, of San Diego, a retired executive at UBS PaineWebber, an investment company, and his wife, Edith, to support the breast-care center at the Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla.
Yellowstone Park Foundation (Bozeman, Mont.): $3-million pledge from Chin-Cheng Wu, founder of ArrowPoint Communications, in Acton, Mass., which was bought by Cisco Systems in 2000, and his wife, Shalin, to help build a visitor-education center.
-- Compiled by Laura Hruby