A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:
Washington University in St. Louis
Andrew and Barbara Taylor gave $50 million to back research, patient care, and training for providers within WashU Medicine’s newly renamed Taylor Family Department of Neurosurgery. The gift will enable the department to recruit neurosurgeons and neurosurgery researchers, residents, and fellows to develop new treatments for patients with diseases of the brain, including tumors, cerebral aneurysms, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease and essential tremor, spine and peripheral nerve injuries, and pediatric neurological issues.
Andrew Taylor is executive chairman of Enterprise Mobility, the parent company of the Enterprise Rent-a-Car, National Car Rental, and Alamo Rent a Car brands. His father, Jack, founded Enterprise in 1957. During a recent neurological illness, Andrew Taylor underwent surgery at the hospital.
This isn’t the Taylors’ only gift to the university in recent years. In 2023, the couple gave $15 million to create the Taylor Family Center for Student Success to aid first-generation and low-income undergraduate students.
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
The Los Angeles hospital system received two major gifts in December.
Bruce and Martha Karsh donated $35 million through their Karsh Family Foundation to back cardiac programs within the Smidt Heart Institute. The gift comprises $30 million to establish the Karsh Division of Interventional Cardiology, and $5 million to create the Karsh Distinguished Chair in Interventional Cardiology.
Bruce Karsh is a lawyer and co-founder of Oaktree Capital Management, a Los Angeles investment firm. Martha Karsh is an attorney who co-founded Clark & Karsh, an architecture and design firm in Los Angeles. The Karshes are minority co-owners of the Golden State Warriors basketball team.
Cedars-Sinai also received $10 million from David and Meredith Kaplan through their David and Meredith Kaplan Foundation to endow its presidential chair, which will be held by the hospital system’s leader and can be used to advance their leadership goals. David Kaplan co-founded Ares Management, an asset-management firm.
Stillman College
The historically Black college in Tuscaloosa, Ala., has received $2 million from Charles and Susan Stillman to augment its endowment. The gift will be used to enhance scholarships, faculty development, academic programs, and campus facilities.
Charles Stillman is a retired technology consultant in Seattle, and Susan Stillman is a retired elementary school teacher. He is the great-grandson of the college’s namesake, Rev. Charles Allen Stillman, who founded the college in 1876 while serving as lead pastor at the First Presbyterian Church of Tuscaloosa.
University of Arizona College of Medicine
Ginny Clements and her husband, Tom Rogers, committed $2 million to create a new cardiovascular research institute at the Sarver Heart Center. Each of them pledged $1 million.
Clements co-founded Golden Eagle Distributors, a Tucson distributor of Anheuser-Busch products, with her first husband, Bill Clements, who died in 1995. She sold the company and retired in 2003. Clements is a breast-cancer survivor who previously gave $8.5 million to the University of Arizona Cancer Center to endow the Ginny L. Clements Breast Cancer Research Institute. She said in a statement that she made her newest gift in honor of her father, uncle, and aunt, all of whom died of heart disease.
Tom Rogers is CEO of R&R Products, a manufacturing company in Tucson that makes replacement parts for the commercial golf and turf industry.
Hebrew Free Loan Society
Andrew Lachman and Ruth Messinger gave $1 million to expand the Fresh Start Loan program, a revolving fund that will offer no-interest, no-fee loans to low- and moderate-income residents of New York with high-interest credit card debt.
Messinger served from 1978 until 1988 as a member of the New York City Council before being elected borough president of Manhattan. She later spent 18 years as president and CEO of American Jewish World Service until stepping down in 2016. The couple made their gift through their donor-advised fund at FJC-A Foundation of Philanthropic Funds.
To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated throughout the week.
