21. ANN LURIE— $40 million to NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY. Mrs. Lurie’s late husband, Robert H. Lurie, co-founded Equity Residential Properties Trust and Equity Office Properties Trust, in Chicago, and was a part owner of the Chicago Bulls and the Chicago White Sox. He died of colon cancer in 1990 at age 48. Mrs. Lurie’s gift will help build the Robert H. Lurie Medical Research Center on the university’s Chicago campus. The center is expected to open in 2003. Mrs. Lurie is a university trustee and a principal at Lurie Investments, in Chicago.
21. HENRY SEGERSTROM—$40 million to ORANGE COUNTY PERFORMING ARTS CENTER. Mr. Segerstrom, managing copartner at C.J. Segerstrom and Sons, a real-estate company in Costa Mesa, has served on the board of the Orange County Performing Arts Center since 1980. His donation will be used to help build a $200 million concert hall.
23. JEFF SKOLL—$39 million to the JEFF SKOLL COMMUNITY FUND. Mr. Skoll, 35, vice president of eBay, an Internet auction site in San Jose, Calif., set up the Jeff Skoll Community Fund at the Community Foundation Silicon Valley in 1999 with $33 million in eBay stock. The fund has since given $1.7 million to 40 programs, focused mainly on families and children.
24. THOMAS and KATHY MENDOZA—$35 million to the UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME. Mr. Mendoza, 50, who graduated from the university in 1973, is president of Network Appliance, a data-management company in Sunnyvale, Calif. Mrs. Mendoza, 45, is vice president of worldwide strategic alliances for the company. The couple’s gift is for general support at Notre Dame’s college of business, which has been renamed for the Mendozas.
25. LINCOLN M. KNORR—$33 million to the UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR. Mr. Knorr earned business and law degrees from the university before co-founding Scott Equipment Co., a machinery manufacturer in Detroit. The bequest was in the form of two unrestricted trusts. Mr. Knorr died in 1998 at age of 74.
26. MARGARET McDERMOTT—$32 million to the UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS. Mrs. McDermott, 74, established the Eugene McDermott Scholars Program, in honor of her husband, Eugene, a co-founder of Texas Instruments who died in 1973 at age 74. The program will provide scholarships to 20 freshmen each year.
*26. JIM and VANITA BAUKNIGHT OELSCHLAGER—$32 million to three Ohio institutions. The Oelschlagers gave $12 million to DENISON UNIVERSITY from which Mr. Oelschlager, 57, graduated in 1964. In addition, they gave $10 million to MOUNT UNION COLLEGE, from which Mrs. Oelschlager, 58, graduated in 1963 and where she now serves as a trustee. Both gifts were earmarked for construction of new science buildings. In addition, the Oelschlagers gave $10 million to the UNIVERSITY OF AKRON for scholarships for students at that university and other colleges in the region. Mr. Oelschlager founded Oak Associates, an investment company in Akron, Ohio.
26. THOMAS M. SIEBEL—$32 million to the UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN. Mr. Siebel, 47, who earned a bachelor’s degree in history, a master’s degree in business administration, and a master’s degree in computer science from the university, founded Siebel Systems, a business-software producer in San Mateo, Calif., in 1993. His gift will help to build a computer-science center.
29. LOUIS EDELSTEIN—$30 million to AMERICAN TECHNION SOCIETY, HADASSAH MEDICAL ORGANIZATION, and the JERUSALEM FOUNDATION. A stock-market investor and lawyer, Mr. Edelstein placed no restrictions on the use of his gifts. The Jerusalem Foundation makes grants to programs in the Israeli capital for community service, education, arts, and other activities. The Hadassah Medical Organization runs two hospitals in Jerusalem, and the American Technion Society, in New York, raises money to support the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, in Jerusalem. Mr. Edelstein died in 1997 at age 89.
29. FAMILY of EDMOND J. SAFRA—$30 million to HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM. Mr. Safra, who died in 1999 at age 67, founded the Republic New York Corp. and the Republic National Bank of New York, now HSBC Bank USA, in 1966. The gift will be used for the university’s endowment and for equipment, and the university’s Givat Ram campus will be named for Mr. Safra.
*A week after The Slate 60 was posted, we learned that Jim and Vanita Oelschlager gave $12 million to Denison University, not $15 million as first reported. We’ve renumbered the list; the couple moved from No. 24 down to No. 26.
Photographs of: Ann Lurie courtesy of the Charles Schwab Corp.; Kathy and Thomas Mendoza courtesy of Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame.
