Honorable Mentions211 other known gifts of more than $1 million in 1997

111. THELMA STEPHENS–$2.6 million in stock to IDAHO STATE UNIVERSITY for a performing-arts center as part of a total gift that could reach $10 million. Stephens’ deceased husband, who built his estate as a potato farmer, left $5 million to ISU at his death. Stephens expects to do the same. The new center will be named for the couple.



111. JACK WARNER–$2.6 million to the UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA for refurbishing its presidential mansion, from the retired chairman of Gulf States Paper.



113. ELISABETH A. HOBBS, EMILY H. FISHER, NANCY ARONSON, and AN ANONYMOUS WOMAN–$2.5 million to endow the first chair in gender studies at the HARVARD UNIVERSITY Graduate School of Education. The chair is the first at the school to be funded solely by women and to be named for a woman, Patricia Albjerg Graham, former dean of the graduate school and the first female dean in Harvard’s history. Carol Gilligan, a pioneering researcher on female psychological and moral development, is the first holder of the chair.



113. ROBERT H. and NAIDA S. WHARTON LESSIN–$2.5 million to HARVARD UNIVERSITY to establish the Lessin Forum in the new computer-science and electrical-engineering building. The forum will house classes, symposia, and conferences. Robert Lessin is a 1977 graduate of Harvard College–the same class year as Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, who made the gift to construct the new building. After graduating from Harvard Business School in 1978, Lessin joined Morgan Stanley, was named vice chairman of Smith Barney in 1994 and in 1996, and ceded some management responsibilities to concentrate on personal venture-capital opportunities. Naida Wharton Lessin is a Wellesley College alumna.



113. THE S.J. QUINNEY FAMILY–$2.5 million to the UNIVERSITY OF UTAH Law School for scholarships and library operations. The gift is the largest in the law school’s history. The Stegner Center for Land Resources and the Environment, based at the law school, will receive $1 million of the gift to fund operating expenses and an endowed professorship. The late S.J. Quinney was a founder of the Salt Lake City law firm Ray, Quinney & Nebeker, one of Salt Lake City’s oldest law firms.



113. STEVE SMITH–$2.5 million to MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY, where he played basketball from 1987 to 1991. Smith, a guard with the Atlanta Hawks, made the donation in honor of his mother, who died of cancer during his rookie season in the National Basketball Association. The bulk of the money, along with contributions from about 40 other donors, will be used to build the $6-million Clara Bell Smith Student-Athlete Academic Center. Smith also endowed a yearly academic scholarship–expected to be worth about $10,000 a year–for a student from Pershing High School in Detroit, of which he is an alumnus.



113. ROGER STRANGELAND–$2.5 million to ST. JOHN’S NORTHWESTERN MILITARY ACADEMY (Delafield, Wis.) from this 1947 alumnus to help construct a classroom building. Strangeland is president of the school’s board of directors and chairman of the Grand Union Co., an East Coast chain of grocery stores. He is a resident of Solvang, Calif.



113. ROBERT J. TRULASKE SR.–$2.5 million to the UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT COLUMBIA for undergraduate scholarships at the College of Business and Public Administration from the CEO of True Manufacturing Co.



113. WILLIAM G. WALDRON–$2.5 million to the GULF OF MAINE AQUARIUM DEVELOPMENT CORP. for the construction of a waterfront aquarium in Portland. Waldron headed pharmaceutical distribution and health-care businesses that are now divisions of national companies. “My family has lived in Maine for seven generations, five generations in the Portland area,” he said. “The state of Maine has been good to us. Now it’s our turn to make a contribution to the state.”



120. HARCOURT SYLVESTER JR.–$2.4 million to the FLORIDA PHILHARMONIC in Palm Beach.