A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:
University of Washington School of Nursing
Chemist Larry Dalton and his wife, Nicole A. Boand, a retired nurse, pledged $10 million for financial aid and other programs. They are directing $8 million to support scholarships that will cover tuition, while the remaining $2 million will support clinical programs and help the nursing school hire more clinical nurse educators who can provide practical, on-the-job training for students.
Dalton co-founded Lumera Corporation to develop and manufacture optoelectronic devices, such as LEDs, photodetectors, and solar cells. The company later became part of Integrated Device Technology, a San Jose, Calif., technology company. Dalton served as the university’s George B. Kauffman Professor in Chemistry until retiring and becoming a professor emeritus. Earlier in his career he served on the faculties of Vanderbilt University, State University of New York at Stony Brook, and the University of Southern California. He joined the University of Washington in 1998.
Nicole Boand is a registered nurse who completed her training with the Los Angeles County School of Nursing at Los Angeles County General Hospital, where she worked in the adolescent crisis psychiatric ward. She serves as chief executive of her family’s Boand Family Foundation, an Irvine, Calif., grant maker.
University of Alabama National Alumni Association
Bill Decas left $8 million to establish and endow a scholarship for out-of-state students, and to expand four endowed scholarships he started in previous years to provide tuition, stipends, and other support to students from Alabama.
Decas was an attorney in Massachusetts who co-owned his family’s Decas Farms, a nearly century-old cranberry business in Carver, Mass. He did not attend the university but was a longtime supporter who became enamored with the university’s Crimson Tide football team during the 1960s and its popular coach, “Bear” Bryant, and attended the university’s football games. He eventually befriended Pat Whetstone, the alumni association’s former president. Decas died last year.
George Mason University College of Visual and Performing Arts
Carolyn Peterson gave $5 million through her Peterson Family Foundation to support significant renovations to the Center for the Arts, the university’s 34-year-old concert hall on its Fairfax, Va., campus.
Peterson is the widow of Milton Peterson, a real estate developer who in 1965 founded what would become the Peterson Companies, a large residential and commercial real-estate firm in Chantilly, Va. He died in 2021. Carolyn Peterson and her late husband established their family foundation in 1997. It primarily supports human-service groups, education, health-care systems, and religious groups.
Hendrix College
William Roberts left $4.6 million to bolster the Dr. William “Bill” Roberts Innovation Endowment Fund, which Roberts established with a previous donation, and support new academic and co-curricular programs.
Roberts was a physician in private practice in Conway, Ark. He graduated from Hendrix in 1965 before heading off to medical school at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. After earning a medical degree there he joined the U.S. Army, where received the Department of Defense Joint Service Commendation Medal in 1972 for meritorious service as a medical officer. He opened his practice in 1974.
He served on the college’s Board of Trustees member for 12 years and advised pre-med students at Hendrix. He also served in a volunteer supervisory role for health care on campus for many years.
Baptist Health Foundation
John and Mary Lou Dasburg gave $2 million to establish the John and Mary Lou Dasburg Endowed Chair in Radiation Oncology at Baptist Health Miami Cancer Institute’s planned Women’s Cancer Center.
John Dasburg has led several large companies. He served as CEO of Northwest Airlines from 1990 to 2001 and has been credited with saving the company from bankruptcy. He then became chairman, CEO, and president of Burger King, and later chairman and CEO of DHL Airways. Dasbury served in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War. Mary Lou Dasburg is a retired lawyer.
University of California at San Diego
Susan Chipman, a pioneer in the field of cognitive science, pledged $1 million to establish the Susan E.F. Chipman and Robert G. Fitzgerald Graduate Fellowship Fund in Cognitive Science, which will support doctoral students pursuing a degree in the Department of Cognitive Science. Robert Fitzgerald is Chipman’s late brother.
Chipman managed the cognitive science program at the United States Office of Naval Research for 22 years, and previously served as assistant director of the National Institute of Education, where she was responsible for research programs in mathematics education, cognitive development, and computers in education.
Her brother was a systems programmer and a co-founder of the software company, Softworks. Chipman indicated in a press release that Fitzgerald left her a significant bequest, and that is what made the pledge possible.
To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated regularly.