HOME / the slate 60: Analysis of the year's biggest philanthropists.

The 60 largest American charitable contributions of 1996.

Posted Tuesday, Dec. 3, 1996, at 1:43 AM ET

Introduction

The 1996 SLATE 60
The 60 largest American charitable contributions of 1996.

The Also-Rans
Other known gifts of over $1 million in 1996.

Competitive Generosity 101

21. CHONG-MOON LEE--$15 million toward the renovation of the SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC LIBRARY, which will serve as the home of the city's new Asian Art Museum. The San Jose businessman announced the gift in an October 1995 press conference at Golden Gate Park. Lee's gift is the largest to any U.S. museum from an Asian-American and the largest to any San Francisco cultural institution. In honor of this gift, the museum will be renamed the Asian Art Museum Chong-Moon Lee Center for Asian Art and Culture. Lee is chairman of Diamond Multimedial Systems and has previously donated approximately $1 million to the Korean section of the Asian Art Museum. He is a regular contributor to scholarship funds to Korea.

22. ERIC GLEACHER--a $15 million challenge grant from this New York investment banker to the UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SCHOOL OF BUSINESS, where he received an M.B.A. degree in 1967. The university said the gift is the largest ever made to its graduate school of business.

23. REUBEN FEINBERG--$15 million to NORTHWESTERN MEMORIAL HOSPITAL (Ill.), the largest single gift in the hospital's history. The commitment names the Feinberg Pavilion, a million-square-foot in-patient facility that will be the centerpiece of Northwestern Memorial's new medical center, which opens in 1999. This gift brings Feinberg's total contributions to Northwestern's medical center to $34 million. The gift will also name the Feinberg Neurodiagnostic Center to advance the treatment and understanding of diseases of the nervous system. Feinberg is president of Chicago's Jefferson State Bank.

24. SIDNEY KIMMEL and RENA ROWAN--$5 million for the endowment to the UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MUSEUM (Washington, D.C.) from the chairman of the Jones Apparel Group and the executive vice president of Jones Apparel Group, respectively. A gallery at the museum is named in their honor. ALSO--$10 million from Kimmels' foundation to the THOMAS JEFFERSON UNIVERSITY in Philadelphia--the largest gift in the university's history. The gift will name the university's cancer center and research institute. TOTAL: $15 million.

25. J. OURSO--$15 million to the LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION from this Louisiana businessman and alumnus of the university. Ourso founded Security Industrial Insurance and operated funeral homes and cemeteries. The school has been renamed the E.J. Ourso College of Business Administration, and will use the money to create endowed professorships, scholarships, and the Marjory B. Ourso Center for Excellence in honor of Ourso's wife.

26. PETER B. LEWIS--$15 million gift to CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY's Weatherhead School of Management (Ohio) from this business executive will provide the lead funding for a significant educational and physical development program intended to position the Weatherhead School of Management among the foremost business schools in the country.

27. GEORGE L. GRAZIADIO and REVA GRAZIADIO--$15 million pledge over three years to PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY (Calif.) for its School of Business and Management. Graziadio is the head of Imperial Bancorp.

28. PETER KARMANOS--a $15 million grant to the BARBARA ANN KARMANOS CANCER INSTITUTE from this Michigan businessman in honor of his wife. The institute is affiliated with Wayne State University and the Detroit Medical Center. The gift is part of a five-year, $75 million campaign.

29. GORDON E. MOORE and BETTY MOORE--$15 million to the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY, for the "New Materials Initiative," a program that "will harness the work of the world's top physicists, chemists, and engineers, leading to the creation of new materials of all types." Gordon Moore is co-founder and chairman of Intel Corp. and a Berkeley alumnus. He is also chairman of the board of trustees of Caltech.

30. WILLIAM F. SCANDLING--Gifts totaling $14.75 million: They include $10 million to HOBART and WILLIAM SMITH COLLEGE (N.Y.) from this 1949 graduate. In 1948, Scandling and his two classmate-business partners offered Hobart College students the opportunity to eat on campus for $12.50 a week, three meals a day, six days a week, the food served family style. This business became the flagship for Saga Corp., the nationwide college- and university-food-service business now owned by Marriott. Scandling's gift is the largest in the colleges' history. His total gifts to the colleges add up to more than $17 million. He was chairman of their board of trustees from 1972 to 1983. The colleges' Scandling Center honors Scandling and his late wife, Margaret. ALSO--$4.75 million to the UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER (N.Y.) for the Graduate School of Education and Human Development.

Posted Tuesday, Dec. 3, 1996, at 1:43 AM ET
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