31. MICHAEL F. PRICE–$18 million to the UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA College of Business Administration from this 1973 alumnus. The gift will be used to fund endowed chairs in accounting, marketing, management, and international business; a student support center to handle scholarships, mentoring programs, internships, and corporate relations; scholarships; and improvements to the library. To honor Price, OU has renamed its business school the Michael F. Price College of Business. Price was also given four season tickets to OU football games. He is a mutual-funds manager whose group of funds has ranked among the best performers in the industry over the past 10 years.
32. BERNARD RAPOPORT–Total 1997 contributions: $17.6 million. A pledge of $10.1 million to the UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN College of Liberal Arts to create an endowment for study-abroad scholarships and to allow faculty members to develop courses with an international flavor. Also: Another $5 million to U.T. Austin to help to build a new home for the school’s Huntington Art Gallery, whose collections have put it among the nation’s top-rated university art museums. “The most civilizing aspect of life is learning,” said Rapoport in an interview. “This museum will house marvelous paintings that bring pleasure and knowledge to many people.” Rapoport is chairman and CEO of American Income Life Insurance Co. in Waco and a regent of the University of Texas, from which he graduated in 1939. In December, he was named chairman of the American Friends of Tel Aviv University (Israel), where he and his wife have established a named chair in the sociology of labor. He is also on the board of the Jerusalem Fund, the Economic Policy Institute, and the National Council on Crime and Delinquency. The family foundation made gifts of $3 million in January 1997, $500,000 of which was the first payment on their $10.1-million pledge.
33. ROY F. and JOANN COLE MITTE–Total 1997 contributions: $17.5 million. $12.5 million from their family foundation to establish a permanent scholarship program at SOUTHWEST TEXAS STATE UNIVERSITY. Also: $5 million to the same university to endow five distinguished professorships in the areas of creative writing, cancer research, semiconductor research, entrepreneurship, and managed-health-care systems. The Mitte Scholars program will provide $5,000 scholarships for 100 undergraduate and 25 graduate students every year. Both Mittes graduated from the university; Roy Mitte also earned a master’s degree there in 1956. He received the university’s Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1982. He is chairman of the board, president, and CEO of Financial Industries Corp., an insurance and financial-holding company. He said that he wanted this gift to be used for scholarships rather than operating or capital expenses because he himself had struggled financiall y while in school.
34. ALLEN and ISABELLE LEEPA–Total 1997 contributions: $17.15 million. A $15-million art collection to ST. PETERSBURG JUNIOR COLLEGE (Fla.) and $2.15 million for a museum to house it. The collection comprises more than 2,000 works, including those of Picasso, Henry Moore, and Max Ernst. It also includes Allen Leepa’s work and that of his stepfather, Abraham Rattner, and other artists. Allen Leepa is a former professor of art at Michigan State University and a noted Abstract Expressionist painter. He said that he and his wife chose the junior college for the gift because of its enthusiasm for the collection and its commitment to educate the public about art.
35. SANDRA PRIEST ROSE and FREDERICK ROSE–Total 1997 contributions: $17 million. This includes: $15 million to the NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY to renovate the library’s main reading room, which will be renamed the Rose Reading Room. The Roses made the gift anonymously in 1995 but decided in 1997 to reveal their identities. The gift, made in honor of the couple’s children, is the largest single gift in the library’s history. Why the secrecy? “Because it’s a firm rule in my husband’s construction business that you don’t announce a project until the shovel is in the ground,” said Sandra Priest Rose, a library trustee who agreed to discuss her family’s gift at the request of Paul LeClerc, the library’s president. “Paul finally persuaded us that going public now might encourage other well-off New Yorkers–who have profited so much in this city but have not paid back–to give.” Also: $2 million to the METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART (New York) to establish a teacher-training program in arts education. The Rose family has a tradition of giving anonymously and later disclosing the gift. A $15-million gift to Lincoln Center in 1990, a $20-million gift to the American Museum of Natural History to rebuild its planetarium in 1996, and a 1974 gift of $300,000 to Yale University were all originally anonymous.
36. JON M. and KAREN HUNTSMAN and FAMILY–Total 1997 contributions: $16.95 million. This includes: $10 million to the UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA for the Wharton School and the School of Arts and Sciences to endow an undergraduate program in international studies and business to be named for the Huntsmans. “Globalization is the single most dramatic change factor affecting business,” said Jon Huntsman when presenting the gift. An alumnus of Wharton’s undergraduate class of 1959, Jon Huntsman currently serves on t he school’s board of overseers. The family has also funded research at Wharton on global competition and innovation and, in 1995, gave $100 million to the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah. Also: $5.2 million to BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY (Utah), for the new law library; $1.25 million to the UNIVERSITY OF UTAH to endow a chair in the school of business; and $500,000 to SOUTHERN UTAH UNIVERSITY for the library’s collection of periodicals, books, and research materials. Jon Huntsman is founder, chairman, and CEO of Huntsman Chemical Corp.
37. ALFRED and NORMA LERNER–$16 million to the CLEVELAND CLINIC FOUNDATION (Ohio) from Alfred Lerner, the chairman and CEO of MBNA Corp., and his wife. The donation, the largest in the clinic’s history, will go toward construction of the Lerner Research Institute. The gift broke the Lerners’ own record for the clinic’s largest single gift, which they set four years ago with a $10-million donation to the University Hospital of Cleveland, where Norma Lerner is a board member.
38. JOAN KROC–At least $15 million. Kroc was the then-anonymous donor of $15 million in aid to the FLOOD VICTIMS in Red River, N.D. When she visited the flood-devastated area, local mayors gave her a tour but, at her request, continued to identify her only as the “Angel.” Said Lynn Stauss, mayor of East Grand Forks: “She stated that the press should go to the people in need and not herself. She didn’t want to take away from their story.” Over the years Kroc has given more than $150 million to various charities, including the Ronald McDonald House, the Ronald McDonald Children’s Charities, and the San Diego Hospice.
38. BERNARD MARCUS–Total 1997 contributions: $15 million. This includes: $10 million to the ATLANTA JEWISH FEDERATION toward its $60-million goal from the chairman of the Home Depot Inc. The federation raises operating funds for 13 Jewish-related agencies on an annual basis. Marcus is donor, chairman, and a trustee of the Marcus Foundation (Ga.). Also: a pledge of an additional $5 million when the federation has raised $35 million.
40. GEORGE WEISS–More than $14 million to the MEDICAL COLLEGE OF GEORGIA. Weiss donated two radio stations, along with a background-music company and Central Square Shopping Center on 15th Street, to the college’s charitable foundation to do with as it sees fit. He declined publicity. “That’s not us,” said Weiss, the owner of Savannah Valley Broadcasting Co. The stations were sold in 1997 for $14 million. Weiss died in December.
