1. | Amherst College | anonymous | a graduate of the college | $100 million | challenge gift to match other gifts to the college’s capital campaign, which aims to raise funds for student aid, faculty support, a new interdisciplinary science center, and other causes |
1. | Brown U. | Robert J. and Nancy D. Carney | Robert Carney, a 1961 graduate of Brown and a member of its Board of Trustees, is chairman of Vacation Publications, in Houston, and was founder of Texas Air Corporation, which owned Continental Airlines and other airlines. Nancy Carney is a former television-news producer. | $100 million | support to help the Brown Institute for Brain Science work toward developing new treatments and cures for neurological conditions including Alzheimer’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; the institute will be renamed the Robert J. and Nancy D. Carney Institute for Brain Science |
3. | Mary Baldwin U. | Bertie Deming Smith | trustee emerita of Mary Baldwin; widow of John Winton Deming, a physician and an associate professor of clinical medicine at Tulane University who died in 1996; and of Joe Dorsey Smith Jr., a newspaper publisher in Louisiana who died in 2008 | $25 million (pledge) | endowment support |
3. | U. of Virginia Law School | Karsh Family Foundation (Bruce and Martha Karsh) | Bruce Karsh is a co-founder of Oaktree Capital Management, in Los Angeles. The couple met while attending the law school. | $25 million (pledge) | support for full-tuition scholarships for law students, establishment of the Karsh Center for Law and Democracy, and creation of professorships in the new center |
5. | Indiana U. of Pennsylvania | John and Charlene Kopchick | John Kopchick is a professor of molecular and cellular biology at Ohio University. He helped invent a drug called Somavert for people with acromegaly, a disorder that causes the body to overproduce growth hormone. Charlene Kopchick is an assistant dean of students at Ohio University. The couple are Indiana University of Pennsylvania alumni. | $23 million | support for science and mathematics efforts that are part of the university’s capital campaign |
5. | Lipscomb U. | anonymous | n/a | $23 million | creation of new facilities at the College of Business and support for its programs, faculty, and students |
7. | U. of Maryland at College Park | Barry P. Gossett, and his family | Barry Gossett is the retired chairman and chief executive of Acton Mobile Industries, which manufactured mobile units for construction sites. The company was purchased by Williams Scotsman in 2017 for $235 million. Gossett is also vice chair of the University System of Maryland’s Board of Regents. | $21.3 million | establishment of the Barry and Mary Gossett Center for Academic and Personal Excellence, which will provide career services and other assistance for student athletes |
8. | Dartmouth College | Rick and Allison Magnuson | Rick Magnuson, a 1979 Dartmouth graduate, founded GI Partners, a private-equity firm in San Francisco. | $20 million | establishment of the Magnuson Family Center for Entrepreneurship, an incubator for alumni, students, and faculty who want to start business ventures and social enterprises |
8. | U. of Maryland School of Medicine | Robert E. Fischell | Robert Fischell is an inventor of medical devices, founder of Angel Medical Systems, in New Jersey, and a former chief engineer of the space department at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. He also serves on the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Board of Visitors. | $20 million | establishment of the Robert E. Fischell Center for Biomedical Innovation and support for the construction of the Health Sciences Research Facility III building |
8. | U. of Southern California | Mei-Lee Ney | Mei-Lee Ney is president of Richard Ney & Associates Asset Management, an investment advisory firm founded by her late husband. | $20 million | creation of the Ney Center for Healthspan Science, which will study longevity and healthy aging at the university’s Leonard Davis School of Gerontology |
11. | Southwestern U. | Jack Garey | retired lawyer and businessman in Austin, Tex., who is a life trustee of the university | $15 million | endowment support to create the Jack and Camille Garey School of Natural Sciences from the university’s natural-sciences program |
11. | U. of Southern Indiana Foundation | William and Mary Stone | William Stone is the owner of SS&C, a provider of financial-services technology solutions in Connecticut. | $15 million | support for the new Health Sciences Center in downtown Evansville, a partnership among the U. of Evansville, the U. of Southern Indiana, and Indiana U.; the center will be named the Stone Family Center for Health Sciences |
11. | Yale U. | Blavatnik Family Foundation (Len Blavatnik) | Len Blavatnik is founder and chairman of Access Industries, an investment company with holdings in media and telecommunications, natural resources, chemicals, and real estate. | $15 million | expansion of the Blavatnik Fund for Innovation at Yale, which Blavatnik established in 2016 with a gift of $10 million, to speed the development of discoveries in the life sciences into commercial applications |
14. | U. of Colorado at Denver | Dr. C.W. Bixler Family Foundation (Don and Maria Johnson) | Don Johnson is an architect whose grandfather, C.W. Bixler, was a physician in Boulder, Colo., and a longtime supporter of the University of Colorado system. | $12 million (pledge) | support for scholarships, international programs, and experiential learning at the College of Architecture and Planning |