A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:
Children’s Health and University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Jean Pogue gave $100 million through the Pogue Foundation to back the construction of a new 33-acre pediatric medicine campus in Dallas that will include a 2 million square-foot hospital.
Jean Pogue and her late husband, Mack, are longtime donors to the two organizations and, with this latest gift, have given the institutions $200 million over the last four decades. Mack Pogue, who died in February at age 89, was a Dallas real estate developer who co-founded the Lincoln Property Company in 1965 with his mentor, the well-known developer Trammell Crow. He served as chairman of the firm for more than 50 years.
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
The Philadelphia-based real estate investor Mitchell Morgan and his wife, Hilarie, gave $50 million to pay for a new research facility that will be named the Morgan Center for Research and Innovation. It is scheduled to open in 2025.
Mitchell Morgan founded Morgan Properties, a Conshohocken, Pa., real estate investment management firm, in 1985. Hilarie Morgan is a former psychologist who worked in community service and private practice, and her training included a year at the children’s hospital. Their three adult children, Jonathan, Brittany, and Jason, and their spouses were involved with the gift, and two of the couples serve on the hospital’s various boards.
Hofstra University
Charles Frei left $35 million to endow scholarships for undergraduates in the Frank G. Zarb School of Business. Through Frei’s bequest, the university will be able to provide approximately $1.8 million in scholarship money annually beginning in the 2025-26 academic year. Frei earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Hofstra in 1955 and went on to launch Cascade Capital Management, an investment firm in Vancouver, Wash. He died in 2022.
Drake University
Greg and Cie Johansen pledged $28 million to renovate Morehouse Hall, which houses the university’s student center, and to support the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences and the John Dee Bright College. The money will also back a range of other programs, including the women’s basketball team and an effort to install solar panels on the recently restored Meredith Hall, an academic building designed by Mies van der Rohe in 1965.
Greg Johansen graduated from Drake’s College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in 1976 and eventually co-founded GRX Corporation and then GRX Holdings LLC, which operated pharmacies throughout Iowa. He sold GRX Holdings to OneroRx, in West DesMoines, Iowa, in 2021 for an undisclosed sum.
Jupiter Medical Center Foundation
Hugh and Nancy Elliott gave $10 million through their R. Hugh Elliott Family Foundation to establish the Elliott Family Center for Cardiac Electrophysiology, expanding the hospital’s existing Electrophysiology lab from one lab to two.
Hugh Elliott founded Elliott Tape, an Auburn Hills, Mich., company that supplies industrial tape to the military, aerospace, and automotive companies and to other specialty industries. He started the company in 1974.
Children’s Hospital of Orange County
Victor and Janie Tsao gave $6 million through their Tsao Family Foundation to establish a pediatric urgent care center focused on treating children with moderate illnesses, such as sore throats, simple viral infections, and minor injuries that do not require emergency care. The new center is scheduled to open next year.
The Tsaos’ founded Linksys, a wireless broadband-hardware company that caters to home use and small businesses, in their garage in 1988. The couple met in Taiwan as students attending Tamkang University, and emigrated to the United States in the late 1970s so Victor Tsao could attend graduate school in Chicago. They later moved to California where they worked in the technology divisions of Carter Hawley Hale, TRW, Neiman Marcus, Taco Bell, and other big companies.
When they started their company, Janie Tsao focused on business development and sales, while Victor worked on product development and supply chain management. After growing their business over 15 years, they sold it to Cisco Systems in 2003 for roughly $500 million.
To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated regularly.
