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Donors A-F | Donors N-Z

G

Margaret F. Galbraith
2006 - Left a bequest of $12 million to the Inland Northwest Community Foundation, Spokane, WA to create a fund benefiting six counties in northern Idaho. The Fund will generate grants to support children and youth, economic development, education, environmental conservation and recreational facilities. Ms. Galbraith died in 2005 at the age of 89. She had inherited money from her father, a mining and utilities industry magnate.

Amelia V. Gallucci-Cirio
2002 - Ms. Gallucci-Cirio donated $1 million to Fitchburg State College (MA) for programs in Western history and Italian language and culture. She is a 1938 graduate of the college and a retired teacher whose late husband was a real-estate businessman.

Lillian Garner
2007 - Ms. Garner donated $38 million through a bequest from her estate to the Jewish Home and Care Center Foundation, Milwaukee, WI to support medical care for residents who lack family members or money. Her family founded the Northwestern Weiss Woodwork Corporation in Milwaukee and the Phoenix furniture Corporation in Sheboygan, WI. She also donated furniture, paintings and other items to the home. A resident of La Jolla, CA, Mrs. Garner died in July 2007 at the age of 95.

Mary Elizabeth Garrett
(1854-1915) A large gift to found the Johns Hopkins Medical School in Maryland on the condition that it admit women

Ann Nields Garstin
2000 - Mrs. Garstin met her husband on a 1929 study-abroad trip sponsored by the University of Delaware and bequeathed $10 million to that institution for scholarships. Mrs. Garstin's husband, Geoffrey, a retired executive at E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Company, died in 1976. Mrs. Garstin died in 1999. She left no stipulations on who may receive the scholarships.

Audrey S. Geisel
2007 - Ms. Geisel made a $2 million pledge to the Zoological Society of San Diego to build a walkway in the zoo's new Elephant Odyssey exhibit complex. She also donated $1 million to the University of California - San Diego (La Jolla). She is the widow of Theodor Geisel, the children's author known as “Dr. Seuss.” The gift will endow a librarian's position. Ms. Geisel is president of the Dr. Seuss Foundation and of Dr. Seuss Enterprises, both in La Jolla, CA.

Ms. Geisel's other donations include:
1996 - $1 million to the Springfield (MA) Public Library and Museums Association
2001 - $1 million to the La Jolla Playhouse (CA) to build two rehearsal rooms

Lucille Puette Giles
1997 - Contributed to the following organizations:

• $35 million to the Charlotte-based Foundation for the Carolinas to be used for charitable, education and recreational needs of Mecklenburg County residents.

• $2 million in her estate to Randolph-Macon Women's College (VA) to create the Lucille Puette Giles Global Studies Initiative from this 1933 alumna.
  

Virginia Gilder
$2 million for students at Giffen Elementary School in Albany, NY to attend private schools if they so choose.

Virginia L. Gladding
2003 - Donated $1.4 million through her estate to Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, to support scholarships for female undergraduate and graduate students.

Evelyn Grollman Glick
2000 - A professional golfer and resident of Baltimore, she left $1.6 million for the University of Maryland at Baltimore School of Pharmacy and School of Medicine.

Paulette Goddard
1990 - Her estate gift of $20 million to New York University.

Sherry Gold
2006 - Donated $1 million to the Albany Law School, Law Clinic and Justice Center, New York to endow a program that serves poor clients and chronic illnesses and provides training on legal rights. Ms. Gol's husband, Barry A. Gols, was a 1970 graduate of the law school and a partner at Thuillex, Ford Gold Johnson & Butler, Albany. He died in 2002.

Rachel Mirsky Golding
Her $40 million estate to Yeshiva University, the largest gift in the University's 107-year history and believed to be the largest one-time gift to higher education under Jewish auspices, according to university officials.

Enid Smith Goodrich
1997 - $160 million bequest to three Indianapolis cultural institutions from the estate of this philanthropist, who died in November 1996 at age 93. The Indianapolis Museum of Art and the Children's Museum will each receive about $40 million, while the Liberty Fund will receive about $80 million. Goodrich was the widow of nationally known businessman Pierre Goodrich, who died in 1973 after amassing a fortune through various investments, including 20 percent ownership of Central Newspapers Inc., parent company of the Indianapolis News and the Indianapolis Star. Enid Goodrich had been a longtime anonymous donor to the art museum, where she served as a trustee. She was also an honorary trustee of the Children's Museum.

Susan Gottlieb
2006 - Ms. Gottlieb made a gift of approximately $1 million to the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association to expand and renovate its facilities. She is president of Greenview, a Los Angeles real estate management company.

Helen Gowan
2002 - Gave $10.2 million through her estate for support of programs to the University of Rochester.

Lillian Haufe Graaskamp
1999 - Mrs. Graaskamp's bequest of $1.8 million will provide an endowment and capital improvements to the library at Carroll College (WI). Her husband was vice president of A. George Schultz Company, which made paper boxes.

Charlotte G. Gragnani
2005 - Left a $9.6 million bequest to Georgetown University, Washington, DC for cancer research and a new laboratory facility at its Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. Ms. Gragnani, who died in 2004, was originally from Lanham, MD where she worked as a medical secretary. Her late husband, Francis L. Gragnani, started a Coca-Cola bottling franchise in Japan.

Katharine Graham
2005 - Former publisher of The Washington Post , Ms. Graham left a $5.5 million bequest to the University of Chicago. The majority of the gifts - $4 million - will be used for a program to attract and support faculty members in the liberal arts. The remainder will support a residence hall and other needs. Ms. Graham, who died in 2001, was a 1938 graduate of the university and a member of its Board of Trustees.

Elizabeth Stuart James Grant
2001 - Folllowing her death in 1990, Mrs. Grant donated $1.5 million through her trust to the Averett College (Danville, VA) for technological improvements, to train faculty members to use technology, and to create the Institute for Learning and Research. She owned the Danville Register and the Danville Bee, now the Danville Register and Bee.

Elizabeth Berry Gray
2000 - She endowed the Elizabeth Berry Gray Endowed Chair of Surgery at the School of Medicine, Wright State University, OH for $2 million. She is the daughter of Loren M. Berry, who founded the Berry Company, which developed the "yellow pages."

Nancy Hall Green
1999 - Donated $5,000,000 to Sweet Briar College (VA) to help construct a student center. Her husband, Holcombe, is chairman of WestPoint Stevens, a textile company.

Meg Greenfield
2000 - A former editorial-page editor for the Washington Post, Meg Greenfield's bequest provides $2,900,000 to the University of Washington for the classics department. Ms. Greenfield, who died of lung cancer in May 1999, had a deep interest in classics and had been donating scholarship money to UW's classics department for years. The bequest comprises a $1.75 million scholarship/fellowship endowment, Ms. Greenfield's summer home on Bainbridge Island, WA, and a $500,000 endowment to maintain the home.

M. Smith Griffith
1999 - An art patron, Mrs. Griffith donated $1 million to the University of Georgia Museum of Art, for the second phase of the museum's capital campaign.

Esther Boyer Griswold
2001 - Made an unrestricted bequest of $6.5 million to American International College.

Helen V. Groot
1996 - $1.2 million to the Fort Wayne Community Foundation (IN) to create a scholarship fund for Fort Wayne High seniors who can't afford to attend college from this woman who had lived "a modest, frugal life."

Agnes Gund
1977 - She founded the Studio in a School Association to bring artists to New York City public schools to help children develop their own sense of art at an early age.

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H

Lorene Potchernick Haddow
2000 - A resident of San Antonio, TX, she made a bequest of $1 million to Texas Lutheran University for unrestricted use. Her family owned a sporting-goods store.

Stacey Halpern
2005 - Made a $70 million pledge to the Cleveland Clinic with her mother Sydell Miller and sister Lauren Spilman, for a new cardiac center. Ms. Spilman's parents founded Matrix Essentials located in Solon, OH. Her father, Arnold, died in 1992. The firm manufactures hair and beauty products.

Dorrance H. Hamilton
2006 - Pledged $25 million to Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia for a new building to house academic programs in medicine, nursing and physical and occupational therapy. Part of the pledge, $5 million, was paid in 2005. The remainder will be paid at $5 million a year for the next four years. A trustee of the university, Ms. Hamilton is the granddaughter of John T. Dorrance, a chemist who invented condensed soup for the Campbell Soup Company in 1897.

Nancy Hamon
2006 - Ms. Hamon donated $10 million to Presbyterian Healthcare System, Dallas, TX to support its expansion project including a new intensive care unit, parking facilities, technology and other additions to the six hospitals. She had previously donated $3 million to the same hospital in 2002 for new MRI technology. She is the wife of the late Jake Hamon, founder of Hamon Oil Company in Dallas. Both Ms. Hamon and her late husband were treated at the hospital.

2005 - Donated $1.5 million to establish the George N. Peters Center for Breast Surgery at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. Ms. Hamon made the pledge, a challenge gift, in honor of Dr. Peters, who was once her doctor. Her late husband, Jake, founded Hamon Oil Company in Dallas.

2004 - Donated $1 million to the University of Texas at Dallas to endow a chair in aesthetic studies. She is the wife of the late Jake Hamon, found of Hamon Oil Company, Dallas.

1999 - Donated $4,000,000 to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas to build a new student center.

1998 - Contributed to the following organizations:

• $1 million to the downtown Dallas Public Library to renovate the fifth floor and to create the Nancy and Jake L. Hamon Oil Resource Center.

• $1 million to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas to benefit breast cancer care and research

Ellen M. Hancock
2000 - Made a $5 million pledge to Marist College, Poughkeepsie, NY to establish the Hancock Center for Emerging Technologies where students will learn about and experiment with new forms of information technology. She is a trustee of the college and chair of Exodus Communications of Santa Clara, CA, a company that provides Internet services.

Elizabeth Handley
2005 - A $2.6 million bequest from Ms. Handley of Carmel, CA, went to the Viewpoint School, Calabasas, CA to augment the Joseph and Elizabeth Handley Endowment of American Historical Studies. Ms. Handley, who died in 2004, had inherited the bulk of the money.

Mary L. Harding
2003 - Made a bequest of approximately $2 million to the Children's Medical Center in Dallas to benefit indigent patients. She was a professor emeritus at Southern Methodist University School of Law (Dallas).

Hilda Hardy
2001 - Mrs. Hardy made an unrestricted $7.5 million gift through her bequest to Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH. Her husband, Robert C. Hardy, graduated from the college in 1925.

Iva M. Hargett
2001 - A $1.2 million bequest from Iva M. Hargett of Hamilton, MT will establish the Friends of the Hamilton Schools Foundation (MT) to provide college scholarships to students who attend Hamilton High School.

Anna M. Richardson Harkness
(1837-1926) After her husband's death when she was 51 years old, she gave $3 million to Yale University (1917) for dormitories, plus another $3 million in 1920 to raise faculty salaries. The second gift was made anonymously and as a challenge to the university to raise an additional $2 million on its own.

She also created The Commonwealth Fund in 1928 with $20 million. Anna Harkness made gifts to Hampton and Tuskegee Institutes, the New York Public Library, the Museum of Natural History in New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York Zoological Society and Columbia Physicians and Surgeons medical school.

Sybil B. Harrington
2001 - Through her estate gave $30 million to the University of Texas at Austin for an international fellowship program.

Reunette W. Harris
1999 - Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta received a $17 million bequest from the estate of Reunette W. Harris, widow of the businessman W. Clair Harris. Mrs. Harris, who died in 1994, designated 60 percent of the bequest for biomedical research, and 40 percent for scholarships. The Harris family had made several previous gifts to the medical school, among them a donation to establish the scholarship fund. Mr. Harris was a garment manufacturer for 30 years before turning to investment and real estate. He was chairman of W.C. Harris & Company and of Harris Realty Company until his death in 1973.

Virginia B. Hartridge
2001 - Dr. Hartridge, who was a physician at the Mayo Clinic, made a $1.1 million bequest to support education, music and other programs at the Rochester Area Foundation (MN).

Lillian Hirst Harvey
2005 - Ms. Harvey donated $2.8 million to the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Boston. The gift, which came from investments, will establish an endowment fund and will be used for general support.

Rita Hauser and Gustave Hauser
1998 - $5 million from Rita Hauser to create the Women's Challenge Fund at Harvard University. The fund will raise $15 million in gifts from women who give in amounts ranging from $25,000 - $250,000.

1997 - $10 million to the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard to create a multidisciplinary center on nonprofits; several years ago they also gave $13 million to Harvard Law School.

Louisine Waldron Elder Havemeyer
(1855-1929) Gifts to the Metropolitan Museum of Art; helped found the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage in 1913 (later known as the National Women's Party)

Mariam Cannon Hayes
2001 - Donated $10 million to Appalachian State University to endow the School of Music, which will be named for her. Mrs. Hayes' family owned Cannon Mills, a textile company in Kannapolis, NC.

Florence Haynes
2005 - Ms. Haynes of West Medford, MA, left a $1 million bequest to the Bangor Theological Seminary (ME). The funds will be used to expand the student scholarship program at the seminary, which also has a campus in Portland, ME. Ms. Haynes worked at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

Martha Ann Dumke Healy
2006 - Made a $2 million pledge to Weber State University, Ogden, UT to support a premedical program. She is a granddaughter and heir of the late E.O. Wattis, a Utah industrialist.

Phoebe Apperson Hearst
(1842-1919) Co-founder of the National Congress of Mothers (later the National Congress of Parents and Teachers); many gifts to the University of California at Berkeley.

Teresa Heinz
Many gifts, including to the Yale University Art Gallery in memory of her late husband, Senator John Heinz, a Yale alumnus. In 1995 she made a $36 million grant to fund the Heinz Awards annually to five individuals who excel in five areas which were important to her late husband.

Marian Heiskell
2005 - Along with her sisters Ruth Holmbert and Judith Sulzberger, Ms. Heiskell donated $4 million to the City University of New York for student scholarships in its new graduate school of journalism. The donors are sisters of Arthur O. Sulzberger, the retired publisher of The New York Times, and are making the gift in his honor. They also donated $4 million to Columbia University in New York City to establish a program that will provide advanced management training to executives of news organizations.

Leona Helmsley
2007 - Ms. Helmsley, head of the Helmsley Hotel Chain, died in August 2007, leaving much of her estate - worth billions - to a charitable trust. The estate is estimated at between $4 billion and $8 billion. She did not name any non-profit groups or specific causes as beneficiaries. During her lifetime, her major contributions included $70 million to New York Presbyterian Hospital and $5 million to the American Red Cross to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Mary Porter Tileston Hemenway
(1820-1894) Boston Normal School of Gymnastics, Tileston Normal School (Wilmington, NC) and aided the work of the Hampton and Tuskegee Institutes

Katherine A. Herberger
2000 - Arizona State University's College of Fine Arts has received a $12 million gift from arts supporter and philanthropist Katherine A. Herberger - the largest personal contribution given in the school's history. Half of Ms. Herberger's gift will fund fellowships, scholarships, and summer research and arts programs, while the rest of the gift will support two faculty positions and partnerships with other community arts and education programs. In recognition of the gift, the College will bear Ms. Herberger's name.

Virginia Louise Herrick
1999 - A retired schoolteacher and resident of Ocala, FL, she donated $1 million for the elementary education program and for scholarships at Castleton State College (VT).

Ada Little Herrmann
2001 - Brenau University, Gainesville, GA received a $2.5 million bequest from the estate of Ada Little Herrmann of Richmond, VA an alumna of the university, to endow a scholarship fund she created before her death.

Jean Jessop Hervey
2000 - Jean Jessop Hervey bequeathed $80 million to the San Diego Foundation. She attached no stipulations to the gift. Her late husband, James Edgar Hervey, a lawyer, had established a trust with the money he made as one of the original investors in Price Club. Shortly after his death, the business was purchased and the value of the investment soared. The Foundation made its first grant from the donation: $5-million for a new library in Point Loma to replace the one where Mrs. Hervey used to spend every Tuesday night reading with her children.

Gertrude Donnelly Hess
1999 - Case Western Reserve University (OH) received a donation of $1.25 million from Dr. Hess, a physician who is a resident of Rocky River, OH. The gift will be used for a professorship in cancer research.

Susan Hetherington
2005 - Pledged $2 million for unrestricted support to Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore) for the Department of Population and Family Health Sciences at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. A resident of Tucson, Ms. Hetherington is a retired professor who taught at the University of Maryland Graduate School of Nursing and School of Medicine. She earned a master's degree from John's Hopkins in 1965 and a Ph.D. in 1974.

Fern M. Hettelhausen
2001 - A resident of Belleville, IL, Mrs. Hettelhausen donated $5.3 million to McKendree College in Lebanon, IN to help build a performing arts center. The gift is in honor of her late husband, Russel, who was a businessman.

Gertrude Hotchkiss Heyn
2006 - A resident of Connecticut, Ms. Heyn made a $4.9 million bequest to the American Foundation for the Blind (New York) for endowment. Her father was the inventor of the Hotchkiss stapler.

Helen Hoag
2005 - Donated $3 million to Chapman University, Orange, CA to establish the Hoag Center for Real Estate and Finance. The gift honors Ms. Hoag's late husband, C. Larry Hoag, who was a businessman from Downney, CA.

Marjorie E. Hobbis
2001 - A $5.7 million bequest from Mrs. Hobbis, of Rancho Santa Fe, CA went to the Braille Institute, Los Angeles for operating costs and programs at its San Diego location. Mrs. Hobbis was a stock market investor whose late husband, Charles, was legally blind and used the talking-book service at the institute's San Diego center. Mrs. Hobbis made two other $5.7 million bequests to the Shriners Hospital for Children in Honolulu, HI and to Unity School of Christianity, Unity Village, MO.

Judith Rosenberg Hoffberger
2007 - A Colorado restaurateur, Ms. Hoffberger has made a pledge of $1 million to her alma mater, Bennington College (VT). Her pledge will support science programs and a collaborative project with the Neurosciences Institute in San Diego. Ms. Hoffberger inherited her money.

Adelyn Hoffman
2007 - Ms. Hoffman donated $5 million to Southwestern Medical Foundation (Dallas) to support genetic and epidemiology research at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. She is the widow of Edmund Hoffman, former co-chairman of Coca-Cola Bottling Group (Southwest) in Dallas.

Reba Hollingsworth
1999 - A $1.1 million bequest from Mrs. Hollingsworth of Bel Air, Maryland went to Johns Hopkins University (MD) to endow research in myeloid metaplasia, a bone-marrow disorder. Her late husband, Egbert, was a physician.

Gladys Holm
1997 - $18 million to Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago from the estate of this retired secretary who died in late 1996. Miss Holm's gift is the largest the hospital has ever received in its 115-year history.

Ruth Holmbert
2005 - Along with her sisters Marian Heiskell and Judith Sulzberger, Ms. Holmbert donated $4 million to the City University of New York for scholarships for students attending its new graduate school of journalism. The donors are sisters of Arthur O. Sulzberger, the retired publisher of The New York Times, and are making the gift in his honor. They also donated $4 million to Columbia University in New York City to establish a program that will provide advanced management training to executives of news organizations.

Winifred Holt
(1870-1945) Co-founder of the New York Association for the Blind and many gifts to the National Institute of Social Sciences

Miriam U. Hoover
2005 - A resident of Glencoe, IL, Ms. Hoover donated $1 million to the capital campaign of the Center on Halsted, Chicago, IL. The organization is a resource center for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. She is the widow of H. Earl Hoover, who started the Hoover Company's engineering department and served as the company's chairman.

Dolores Hope
2007 - Donated $1 million to the LPGA Foundation (Daytona Beach, FL) to support a fund that provides assistance to needy members of the Ladies' Professional Golf Association and others in the golf industry. She is the widow of comedian Bob Hope who died in 2003.

Wanda Toscanini Horowitz
1999 - A townhouse valued at $4 million from the estate of Wanda Toscanini Horowitz of New York went to Guiding Eyes for the Blind (NY) for endowment. She was the daughter of the late conductor Arturo Toscanini and wife of the late pianist Vladimir Horowitz.

Martha A. Horvath
2007 - Made a $1.2 million bequest to Saint Joseph Academy (Cleveland, OH) to endow scholarships. Her father owned a cleaning-supply company.

Maisie Houghton and Jamie Houghton
1997 - $1.25 million to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University to endow a fund for women and leadership programs for undergraduates

Helena Gabriel Houston
2001 - At the age of 96, this former elementary school teacher from Charlotte, NC has established a scholarship fund for education students at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Her gift was made through a $1.3 million pledge.

Whitney Houston
1995 - Through her foundation, a $125,000 gift to Hale House in NY to help Harlem mothers who may be at risk of abusing their children. "The gift enabled Hale House to start the "Time Out for Moms" program which provides a physical and emotional haven for women worn out by parenting and from living in drug and crime-infested neighborhoods."

Lillian Lincoln Howell
2005 - Donated $10 million to Pomona College, Claremont, CA to construct two academic buildings that will house programs in several disciplines. Ms. Howell graduated from Pomona in 1943. She owns the Lincoln Broadcasting Company in Brisbane, CA.

Janice Bryant Howroyd
2005 - Pledged $10 million to the University of Southern California in Los Angeles to support student aid programs. A member of the university's College Board of Councilors, Ms. Howroyd is owner and chief executive officer of ACT-1, a personnel-services company in Torrance, CA.

Marcia L. Hubbard
2002 - A resident of New York, her $4 million bequest went to Lancaster Country Day School (PA), for endowment. She was an alumna of the school.

Allene Hubler
2007 - Left a $4 million bequest to Baylor University to endow a chair, a professorship and scholarships in the university's ministry-guidance program. Ms. Hubler died in May at the age of 98. Her late husband, Raymond, was an electrical engineer.

Virginia Waddell Hudgins
2001 - Gave over $1.5 million from her estate to Peace College for support of programs.

2000 - A resident of Louisburg, NC who died in 1999 at age 93, her $1.5 million bequest went to Louisburg College. The bequest will go for endowment, building renovations and Learning Partners, a tutorial program for students with learning disabilities.

Voncile Bowen Huffman
2004 - Made a bequest of approximately $2 million to Central Missouri State University (Warrensburg) for scholarships.

Marie Hulbert
2006 - Donated $1 million through a bequest to Augusta State University, GA to endow academic programs. She was a retired high school biology teacher from Maine who died in 2005.

Swanee Hunt and Merle Chambers
Created "Colorado's Million Dollar Day" to fund the 1992 Clinton-Gore presidential campaign

Priscilla Payne Hurd
2005 - Donated $1.5 million to Moravian College, Bethlehem, PA to establish an endowment for student-faculty research. She is chair of the college's board of trustees.
1994 - A gift to The Madeira School in Virginia to build the Hurd Sports Center and an endowment to support the center, as well as an endowment to support faculty and program development

Mary Hutto
2001 - Through her estate, Ms. Hutto donated $3.5 million for scholarships to Western Kentucky University.

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I

Dora Donner Ide
2000 - A San Francisco woman who died in December 1998 at the age of 82, has left more than $111 million to two dozen local and national charities. According to nonprofit experts, the bequest is an early example of the kind of gift that will become increasingly common as the aging World War II generation bequeaths trillions of dollars of accumulated wealth to its heirs and society. Ms. Ide's father, William H. Donner, a steel company executive and associate of Andrew Carnegie, believed strongly in philanthropy in the tradition of the Carnegie family. The bulk of the estate went to 29 charities, including 15 Bay area groups. Ms. Ide stipulated that her gifts be earmarked for endowments, and that the organizations on the receiving end should already have an endowment at least twice the size of her donation. If they didn't meet these criteria, the money would be held by the San Francisco Foundation until the organization could meet the requirement. The gift was described as "sophisticated" by San Francisco Foundation CEO Sandra Hernandez, who added, "She understood that if you give an endowment and they don't know how to manage money it's not a good gift."

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Barbara Barrow Jacobs
2006 - Mrs. Jacobs, who died in November 2006, donated $40.6 million to Indiana University in Bloomington for its School of Music. The School will be named in honor of her late husband, David H. Jacobs, an owner of the Cleveland Indians baseball team and a developer of shopping centers who died in 1992. Nearly half the gift will endow fellowships for graduate students. Another $10 million will endow undergraduate scholarships and the rest will endow faculty positions and pay for programs at the School of Music. Mrs. Jacobs and her husband were both 1948 graduates of the University. However, the gift was prompted by a request from Ms. Jacobs' grandson, David Jacobs, Jr., a graduate of the music school during the 1970s. He had attended a rehearsal of the Cleveland Orchestra only to discover that the orchestra had forgotten most of its musical scores. When he told his father about the predicament, the elder Mr. Jacobs at his son's request flew the missing music to the University in his private jet. Years later, when asked what he would like for his birthday, the younger Mr. Jacobs suggested naming the School of Music after his father, to honor his generous gesture that day.

Sally C. Harrington Jackson
1999 - Left an unrestricted $10 million bequest from her estate to Juliet Fowler Homes, a Dallas charity which houses elderly people and troubled adolescents. Mrs. Jackson was the widow of the investment banker W. C. (Decker) Jackson, Jr., former chairman of First Southwest Company. The charity has placed her gift in its endowment.

Rona Jaffe
1995 - Started a foundation to help young women writers

Maurice Jameson
2005- A resident of Dallas, Ms. Jameson made a $1.23 million bequest to endow research of scleroderma and macular degeneration at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Foundation (Dallas). Her husband was William S. Jameson, an oil lawyer who died in 1998.

Natalia J. Janicki
1999 - A psychiatrist form Dearborn, MI, Natalia Janicki's $1.3 million bequest to the University of Illinois at Chicago will go for scholarships at the College of Medicine.

Mary Jarvis
2006 - Ms. Jarvis, who died in 2004, made a $4.3 million bequest to the Kansas State University Foundation (Manhattan, KS) to expand the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art at Kansas State University. Ms. Jarvis was a 1942 graduate of the university and was the first woman recipient of a bachelor's degree in landscape architecture.

Anna Thomas Jeanes
(1822-1907) From a Philadelphia Quaker family, she supported pioneering work to improve rural elementary schools for both black and white children in the southern U.S. (Negro Rural School Fund) as well as the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of Friends

Marilyn Jenne
1999 - A gift of $2 million from Marilyn Jenne of Amherst, OH, a retired secretary, endowed a professorship in equine medicine and research at Ohio State University.

Eleanor Nicols Jernigan
2000 - A zoologist, physical therapist, and investor, she bequeathed $10 million to the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression in Great Neck, NY for endowment. Ms. Hernigan, who died in March 2000, assisted the geneticist Thomas Hunt Morgan during the 1930s in his Nobel Prize-winning work on the fruit fly.

Susie Frum Jimison
2005 - Ms. Jimison, a music and voice teacher from Huntington, WVA made a $2 million bequest to West Virginia University (Morgantown) for research on Alzheimer's disease at the Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute.

Ann Cobb Johnson
2004 - A resident of Spartanburg, SC, Ms. Johnson donated $2.5 million to endow a chair in the humanities and literature at Wofford College, located in Spartanburg.

Jeanne Roach Johnson
2004 - A private investor in Dallas, TX, Ms. Johnson donated $1 million to Southern Methodist University (Dallas) to endow the piano program in the Meadow School of the Arts.

Laura Johnson
1999 - The Metropolitan Museum of Art (NY) received a $1 million gift from Laura Johnson of New York, widow of Raymond Johnson, former president of Saks Fifth Avenue, for the Costume Institute.

Phyllis Berical Johnson
2004 - A resident of Manhattan Beach, CA, Ms. Johnson made a $1 million bequest for a scholarship fund at Whitman College, Walla Walla, WA.

Sheila C. Johnson
2007 - Donated $5 million as a partial challenge grant to CARE in Atlanta, GA as a challenge gift. She is the co-founder of Black Entertainment Television in Washington, DC. Her gift is designated for a campaign to raise awareness and support for poor women worldwide. The bulk of the donation will go to match donations by other supporters over the next two years. The remaining $1 million will go toward marketing efforts for the campaign.
2006 - Ms. Johnson pledged $5 million to the University of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA) to establish a center for Human services at its Curry School of Education.
2005 - Ms. Johnson donated $1 million to the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation (Springfield, NJ) for its research programs.
2003 - Donated $7 million to the New School University, Parsons School of Design (New York) to create a new design center. Ms. Johnson is a member school's Board of Governors.

Angelina Jolie
2003 - The actress made a $5 million pledge over 15 years to the Cambodian Vision in Development (Battambang, Cambodia) to help amputees and veterans of Cambodia's civil war and to set up a wildlife sanctuary in the region formerly controlled by the Khmer Rouge.

Catherine Stewart Jones
1999 - A bequest of $8,500,000 from the estate of Ms. Jones, an elementary and high school teacher, went to the Community Foundation of Central Georgia for unrestricted endowment.

Gayden R. (Sissy) Jones
2007 - Donated $1 million to the Montreat Conference Center (NC) to endow a fund to protect and manage wilderness areas surrounding the center.

Winifred Hughes Jones
2002 -Ms. Jones made a $1.2 million bequest to the University of North Dakota Foundation (Grand Forks) for an endowment. An alumna of the university, she managed real estate holdings.

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Kelly Karnes
2006 - Donated $1 million to Purdue University (West Lafayette, IN) to build a new archives and special collections library. She graduated from the university in 1935 with a degree in costume and interior design. She is the wife of the late William G. Karnes, president of the former Beatrice Foods Company in Chicago.

Ellen Philips Katz
2005 - Donated $1 million to Northwestern University, Evanston, IL to endow the directorship of the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art. A university trustee, she also serves on the board of the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City as well as other organizations.

Glorya Kaufman
1999 - Mrs. Kaufman is the widow of Donald Kaufman, co-founder of the construction firm Kaufman & Broad, and a long-time supporter of dance programs at U.C.L.A. She donated $18 million to renovate the building that houses the dance department at that university.

Gail Veasman Kellogg
2001 - Gave $1 million for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Edna Kelly
2006 - A retired antiques dealer in Centerville, OH, Ms. Kelly donated artworks valued at $1.6 million to the art museum at Miami University (Ohio).

Hazel Kelly
2006 - Ms. Kelly, who died in 2005, made a $1.35 million bequest to Old Capitol Foundation, Vandalia IL to construct a campus in Vandalia of Kaskaskia College (Centralia, IL). She was a resident of Vandalia, IL.

Sarah Law Kennerly
2004 - A former faculty member at the university's School of Library and Information Sciences, Ms. Kennerly left a bequest of $42.25 million to the University of North Texas (Denton). The bequest will create up to six professorships for faculty members at the library school. Ms. Kennerly died in 2002.

Sophie Kerr
1965 - A $500,000 bequest to Washington College in Maryland. She stipulated that half the annual earnings from her estate be given to a graduating senior who demostrated promise as a writer. The Sophie Kerr Prize is now the richest undergraduate prize in the world. The bequest also stated that a like sum be spent on student scholarships, library books, literary publications and visiting writers and scholars.

Dorothy Ketman
2005 - Made a $2 million bequest to the University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA to establish a scholarship fund. She was a 1920 graduate of the University. A resident of Greenbrae, CA, Ms. Ketman died in January 2005.

Ruth L. Kilton
2004 - A resident of Warwick, RI, Mrs. Kilton made a $17 million bequest to the Rhode Island Foundation in Providence for an endowment to benefit children, elderly people and animals in that state. Mrs. Kilton, who died in 2004 at the age of 96, had worked at Amica Insurance in Littleton, RI and at the US Gutta Percha Paint Company, in Providence.

Nancy Roberts King
1999 - A library fundraiser, philanthropist, and resident of Summit, NJ, she donated $1 million to renovate the library and preserve the collection at Manhattanville College, NY.

Tabitha King
1995 - $2.5 million pledge to the Bangor (Maine) Public Library for renovation and expansion.

Wanda T. King
2002 - Ms. King donated $1.3 million to Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore) to endow a fund for pediatric endocrinology.

Ann Kirkwood
2007 - Bequeathed $3.3 million to the University of Nevada at Reno to endow scholarships for nursing students. Ms. Kirkwood died in 2006 at the age of 85. She studied at the university from 1939-41.

Jeanette Ackerman Klarenmeyer
2004 - Donated $6,738,242 through a bequest to the Jewish Home and Hospital Lifecare System, New York, for endowment.

Dorothy G. Klasen
2004 - Made a bequest of $3.3 million to the Greater Cincinnati Foundation to establish two unrestricted funds. Mrs. Klasen, an employee of the Internal Revenue Service, died at the age of 89 in 2003.

Lois Klawon
2006 - Ms. Klawon, who died in 2005, donated $10 million to Miami University in Oxford, OH for student scholarships. A resident of Cleveland, Ms. Klawon was a 1939 graduate of the university.

Helen Way Klinger
2004 - Marquette University received $18 million from the estate of Mrs. Klinger, daughter of Sylvester B. Way.

Cynthia Knight
2006 - Donated $3.5 million to the Zoological Society of Florida, Miami, FL. The gift will support the new Tropical America exhibit at the Miami Metrozoo. A racehorse breeder in Miami and Ohio, she is the owner and president of Landon Knight Stable.

Marion Knott
2006 - A resident of Newport Beach, CA, Ms. Knott donated $3 million to Chapman University in Orange, CA for a new building to house the College of Film and Media Arts. The Knott family founded Knott's Berry Farm, a popular amusement park located in Buena Vista, CA.

2001 - Gave $2.5 million to Chapman University for support of programs.

Marion I. Knott
1999 - Gave $10 million to Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine to endow one directorship each in oncology and in genetics. She was the widow of Baltimore real estate developer Henry J. Knott.

Nancy Welch Knowles
2007 - Ms. Knowles made a $10 million unrestricted pledge to the Lyric Opera of Chicago. She is the chairman emeritus of Knowles Electronics, a manufacturing company in Chicago. The opera company will receive the gift upon Ms. Knowles/s death, and will use the money for general operating support. Ms. Knowles is a member of the opera's Board of Directors, and is also president of the Knowles Foundation, in Chicago.

Gisela Kolb
2000 - A $1 million bequest from the estate of Gisela Kolb of Louisville, KY, a professor of psychiatry, went to create the Gottfried and Gisela Kolb Endowed Chair in the Department of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine, University of Louisville, KY.

Maxine Bateman Kolb
2005 - Ms. Kolb left a $3 million bequest to Tri-State University in Angola, IN. The bulk of the gift will be used for endowment. Ms. Kolb is the wife of a former president of the University, Richard M. Bateman.

Nada Konrad
1999 - Made a $1 million bequest to University of the Pacific, CA for scholarships at the School of Dentistry. Ms. Konrad was a resident of San Francisco, where her late husband, Arthur, was a dentist.

Beatrice Kornblum
2000 - A retired schoolteacher and resident of St. Louis, Ms. Kornblum's gift of $5 million established the Institute for Teaching Excellence at the School of Education, Webster University, MO.

Vera Bluemner Kouba
2000 - Through sale of an art collection as part of her estate, Ms. Kouba left $2.6 million to Stetson University for programs in art and art history.

Marion Kremen
2001 - Mrs. Kremen's trust, worth over $3 million, and a pledge of $500,000 over five years went to the California State University at Fresno for a doctoral program in education and other graduate programs. The gifts honor her late husband, Benjamin, who was an education professor at the university. She was a former elementary school teacher and principal.

Joan Kroc
2004 - Mrs. Kroc donated $1 million through a bequest to the Helen Woodward Animal Center (Rancho Santa Fe, CA).

2003 - Mrs. Kroc of Rancho Santa Fe, CA was the widow of Ray A. Kroc, the founder of McDonald's Corporation. Following her death in October, 2003 it was announced that she had made a $1.5 billion bequest to the Salvation Army for Community Centers. The gift will be divided into four equal amounts and distributed to the four geographic territories that comprise The Salvation Army in the United States. She also made a $10 million bequest to the San Diego Opera for its production fund which supports artistic programming. She also made large bequests to National Public Radio in Washington; the University of Notre Dame; and the University of Sand Diego. In addition KPBS, a public radio station in San Diego, received $5 million for its endowment from Ms. Kroc.

Ms. Kroc also contributed to the following organizations (not a comprehensive list):

• $60 million to Ronald McDonald Children's Charities in honor of her late husband, Ray A. Kroc, the founder of McDonald's Corporation. It is the largest single gift the charity has ever received.

• $25 million in 1998 to the University of San Diego to establish the Mohandas Ghandi Institute of Peace and Justice

• $18.5 million to the San Diego Hospice

• $15 million to the citizens of Grand Forks, North Dakota for recovery efforts after the disastrous spring 1997 flood

• $6 million to the University of Notre Dame (Indiana) to create the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies

• $5 million in 2003 for an endowed lecture series at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice at the University of San Diego
  
  

• $3 million to the University of San Diego for student loans

• $1 million to the Betty Ford Center for the treatment of alcoholism

• $1 million to the San Diego Opera

• $1 million to the Special Olympics

• many gifts to the St. Vincent de Paul Village, which provides assistance and training for homeless people

Nina Kung
1996 and 1997 - A total of $8 million to the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

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Ann Lacy
2003 - Donated $1 million to Oklahoma City University for capital improvements. Mrs. Lacy is a stock market investor whose husband, James Alexander, is dean emeritus of the business school at OCU.

2001 - Mrs. Lacy donated $12 million through a charitable remainder annuity to Oklahoma City University for unrestricted use.

Kate Macy Ladd
(1863-1945) Created the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation.

Verona Joyner Langford
2001 - A resident of Farmville, NC who died in 2000, Verona Langford made a $5.5 million bequest to endow the library at East Carolina University, Greenville, NC.

Gladys E. Langroise
2000 - Mrs. Langroise, who died in 2000 at the age of 99, had earmarked half of the proceeds from her fund at the Idaho Community Foundation for health, education and child welfare organizations. Special consideration was to be given for four groups - Albertson College in Caldwell, ID; the Boise Philharmonic; St. Labre Indian School in Ashland, MT; and the Warm Springs Counseling Center in Boise. A committee of advisors chosen by the donor will choose the recipients of the remaining proceeds. Mrs. Langroise's husband, William H. Langroise, was a lawyer and investor, who died in 1981 at the age of 82.

Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence
2005 - Ms. Lawrence, who died in February 2005, left a $2 million bequest to the Parsons School of Design in New York. The gift will endow the Lawrence Scholars Program, named for Ms. Lawrence's late husband, the artist Jacob Lawrence. The program will provide training in art and design for low-income high-school students from the Harlem neighborhood where Mr. Lawrence was raised.

Barbara Lee
2006 - A resident of Cambridge, MA, Ms. Lee donated $1.5 million to the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Her gift will endow the Women in U.S. Politics Training Program and Lecture Series. She had established the program in 2004 with a grant of $40,000 from her foundation. Ms. Lee helped produce the “Governor's Guidebooks Series.” She is the former wife of Thomas Lee, a businessman who specialized in high profile leveraged buyouts.

Mary Farley Ames Lee
1999 - Ms. Lee was a 1938 graduate of Longwood College, Farmville, VA who died in 1999 at the age of 82. Her $2.7 million bequest includes a farm in Mount Holly, VA valued at $1 million that will be used for environmental research; $1.5 million for an endowment to support the farm; and $200,000 for scholarships.

Joan B. Leech
2001 - Mrs. Leech, of Neenah, WI made a $2.5 million bequest to the Community Foundation of the Fox Valley Region, Appleton, WI to create a fund to support nonprofit groups in Wisconsin. Her late husband, Fred, owned the Universal Paper Company.

Ruth Ann Leever
2000 - A resident of Waterbury, CT, Mrs. Leever gave $1 million to the Naugatuck Valley Community Technical College (CT) for renovation of the Mainstage Auditorium. Her husband, Harold, is chairman emeritus of the chemical company, MacDermid Inc.

Sandy Lerner
1996 - She bought Chawton House in England to create a Jane Austen studies center. In a 1996 San Francisco Chronicle article she was referred to as "Silicon Valley's first feminist philanthropist."

Madelyn M. Levitt
$5.5 million to Drake University
As National Chair of The Campaign for Drake (1989-94), which raised $130 million, she was the first woman in the U.S. to chair a successful campaign of $100 million or more for a coeducational college or university. She has won numerous awards, including the NSFRE Volunteer Fundraiser of the Year Award and Outstanding Individual Philanthropist Award.

Dorsey S. Lewis
2001 - A resident of Cathlamet, WA, Ms. Lewis was a stock market investor and former data processor who died in 1998. She made an unrestricted $2.4 million bequest to the Fort Vancouver Regional Library Foundation, WA.

Francis Aicher Lewis
2003 - A $1.1 million bequest from Mrs. Lewis will establish a chair in Animal Sciences and industry and an endowment for Animal Research and education at Kansas State University Foundation (Manhattan, KS). Ms. Lewis was an alumna and former trustee of the foundation and a partner at Alfalfa Lawn Farms, a purebred Hereford business in Larned, KS.

Katherine R. (Kaye) Lillehei
2000 - Mrs. Lillehei gave a $16 million charitable lead trust to the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities medical school in the Lillehei family's name to commemorate the work of her late husband. C. Walton Lillehei was a professor of heart surgery at the university and director of medical affairs at St. Jude Medical Incorporated, manufacturer of medical devices in Minneapolis. Dr. Lillehei was also an inventor of the heart pacemaker. After her husband's death from cancer in 1999 at the age of 80, Mrs. Lillehei designated $13 million of the gift to establish the Lillehei Heart Institute and another $3 million to endow the Katherine R. and C. Walton Lillehei Chair in Nursing Leadership.

Frances Norick Lilly and Marjorie J. Norick
2002 - A $2 million pledge from Marjorie Norick and her late sister, Frances Lilly of Oklahoma City will go to Oklahoma City University to establish an arts scholarship fund and a fund to help construct and maintain an arts center. Their family owned a printing company in Oklahoma City.

Ruth Lilly
2007 - Ms. Lily donated $2.2 million to the Indianapolis Museum of Art to endow the director of horticulture's position. Her great-grandfather founded Eli Lily and Company. With this gift, she has given a total of $26.4 million to the museum.

2002 - Ms. Lilly, 87-year-old heir to the Eli Lilly pharmaceutical fortune, has created estate plans that provide an estimated half-billion dollars for Indiana nonprofit groups and several arts organizations. She made a pledge expected to total $100-million over 30 years to the Modern Poetry Association in Chicago. The Association publishes Poetry magazine. Since much of the gift is being made in Lilly company stock, its value will depend on how the company's shares fare over the next three decades. Ms. Lilly set up two remainder trusts, one of which will be paid upon her death, and three charitable lead trusts that provide annual payments to the organization starting in 2003. Ms. Lilly's gift was unrestricted; the Association said the money would be used to ensure that the magazine will be published for decades to come, to support the Association's national education programs, and to lease or purchase new offices for the Association.

Ms. Lilly also has made plans to donate to Americans for the Arts, a group in Washington, DC that promotes the arts and arts education nationwide. In addition, Ms. Lilly provided $200-million to create the Ruth Lilly Philanthropic Foundation to support nonprofit programs in Indiana. Over the past 30 years, Ms. Lilly has given more than $25 million to higher education institutions, libraries, health programs and other nonprofit groups throughout Indiana, including the University of Indiana and the Honor Society of Nursing in Indiana.

Lucille Caudill Little
2001 - Mrs. Little of Lexington KY donated $1 million to the University of Kentucky Lexington, KY to establish a fund that will help the university's fine arts library purchase books and other research materials. Her late husband was a farmer and raised thoroughbred horses.

Jeannik Mequet Littlefield
2006 - Pledged $35 million to the San Francisco Opera. Of the total, $2 million per year will go toward general operating costs and $5 million will augment the endowment. The gift appears to be the largest ever given to an opera company in the United States and is a mix of stocks and cash to be paid over five years. A member of the opera's Board of Directors for 15 years, Ms. Littlefield has previously contributed millions of dollars to the company. Her passion for opera began during her childhood in Paris. However, her husband did not share her love of the art form until, through a gift from the Littlefields, the San Francisco Opera installed supertitles to translate foreign language operas in its theatre in 1984.

Elisabeth Sloan Livingston
2002 - A resident of Brooklyn, NY, Ms. Livingston made a $3 million bequest to Helen Keller Services for the Blind, Brooklyn, NY for program support. Her late husband, John Holyoke Sloan, was a lawyer.

Frances Lehman Loeb
1994 - $7.5 million to Vassar College for the art museum

Sophie Irene Loeb
(1876-1929) Co-founder and first president of the Child Welfare Commission of America, 1924

Katherine Bogdanovich Loker
Has contributed to the following organizations:

• $17 million in 1998 to Harvard University for renovations of Widener Library

• $17 million in 1998 to the University of Southern California - her alma mater - for the construction of a new track stadium and to support hydrocarbon research at the Loker Hydrocarbon Institute, named in honor of her earlier major gifts to support the work of Nobel Laureate George A. Olah.

• $10 million in 1996 to Harvard University for the renovation of the lower level of Memorial Hall. Mrs. Loker's late husband was a Harvard College graduate.

Carolyn Bason Long
2007 - Donated $1 million to the University of North Carolina at Greensboro to endow scholarships and support academic programs. Her late husband, Russell, was a U.S. senator from Louisiana. Mrs. Long graduated for the University of North Carolina in 1943 with a bachelor's degree in secretarial administration.

Marjorie Loos
2000 - A resident of Pittsford, NY, she made a $1.5 million unrestricted bequest to her alma mater, Nazareth College (Rochester, NY). The funds will be used for new academic and athletic programs and the construction and renovation of campus buildings. Her husband was a vice president of Rochester Gas & Electric.

Josephine Shaw Lowell
(1843-1905) First woman member of the New York State Board of Charities, 1875

Clare Booth Luce
1989 - $70 million in her estate for science education for undergraduate women

Ann Lurie
2007 - Ms. Lurie, President of Lurie investments in Chicago and a former pediatric nurse, pledged $100 million to Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago. Her gift will build a new facility in Chicago's Streeterville neighborhood and will support pediatric-health research. The new hospital will be named for Ms. Lurie and her late husband, Robert. It is expected to cost $850 million, with construction scheduled to begin in spring, 2008 and opening expected by 2012.  A mother of six, Ms. Lurie once worked as a critical-care nurse at Children's Memorial Hospital. At Memorial Hospital, she previously endowed a professorship in cancer-cell biology and donated $1.3 million to support the Adolescent Medicine Trials Network for HIV/AIDS research. She has donated large sums to Northwestern University, including $40 million to create a medical research center and $10 million to endow the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center. She sits on the board of trustees of Northwestern. In 2002 she pledged $15 million to the University of Michigan, her husband's alma mater, to create programs in biomedical engineering and integrated microsystems. She is the president and treasurer of the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Foundation and president of Africa Infectious Disease Village Clinics, a charity she founded in 2002.

• 2000 - $5 million to create the Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the business school, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
• 1994 - $12 million to the University of Michigan to establish the Robert H. Lurie Fund in Engineering to honor of her late husband.

Helen M. Lynch
2000 - A retired high school teacher, Ms. Lynch of West Hartford, CT gave $2 million for capital needs to Saint Joseph College, West Hartford.

Christine E. Lynn
2003 - Ms. Lynn, chief executive officer and chairman of the Lynn Insurance Group, Boca Raton, FL donated $5 million to support research programs in paralysis and pelvic trauma at the University of Miami School of Medicine, Coral Gables, FL.

2001 - Ms. Lynn donated $10 million to the Nursing School at Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton.

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Charlotte Edwards Maguire
1999 - A physician, her $1 million gift established a professorship in the Program in Medical Sciences at Florida State University.

Ellen Malcolm
Founder of Emily's List, a campaign fund raising program for women Democratic candidates

Paula Garvey Manship
2001 - Donated 3 million to the Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge to help build an art museum. Her late husband published The Advocate.

Florence Harold Marcoux
1999 - Mrs. Marcoux's $2.4 million bequest to Kansas State University will fund scholarships for first-year students. A retired home-economics professor at Washburn University of Topeka, she is the widow of Dale Marcoux, a business professor at K.S.U.

Virginia Gatch Markham
1999 - Baker University (KS) received a $2.2 million bequest from the estate of Mrs. Markham of Topeka, Kansas to endow scholarships. She was a high school Latin and mathematics teacher and a librarian.

Virginia Cretella Mars
2005 - Ms. Mars, a resident of McLean, VA, donated $1 million to the Wildlife Trust (Palisades, NY) for unrestricted support.

Angela Mason
2006 - A 1980 graduate of Bellarmine University, Louisville, KY, Ms. Mason made a $2 million pledge to endow scholarships for needy students at her alma mater. She is the founder of ITS Services, a technology company in Washington.

Kathleen (Katsy) Mason
1999 - A $1,350,000 bequest from the estate of Ms. Mason of San Francisco went to the Grand Canyon Trust (AZ) for endowment. She was a reporter who later worked for the U.S. State Department and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Lois W. Mathis
2002 - Ms. Mathis left $1.4 million from her estate to the University of Southern Colorado for scholarships.

Glenda Garrelts Mattes
2007 - A real estate broker from Overland Park, KS, Ms. Mattes made a $1 million pledge to Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS. The gift will endow an award to encourage students to travel internationally. A 1965 alumna of the university, Ms. Mattes earned a bachelor's degree in medical technology.

Beatrice Cummings Mayer
Museum of Contemporary Art In Chicago, 1993
$7.5 million to be used for a 15,000-square-foot Mayer Education Center within the new museum and a 300-seat auditorium. The facilities will be used to explain contemporary art to schoolchildren and museum visitors.

Fern McAlister
2001 - A resident of Los Angeles, Mrs. McAlister bequeathed $38.3 million to Children's Hospital Los Angeles for new research. The gift will establish the McAlister Clinical Research Program, which will bring scholars to the hospital. Mrs. McAlister died in February of 2001 at the age of 93. Her late husband, Harold, left a trust worth $9.8 million to the hospital when he died in 1981 at the age of 86.

Oseola McCarty
1995 - $150,000 to the University of Southern Mississippi
Miss McCarty was a washer woman her entire life and decided to give her savings to finance scholarships for black students at the university in her hometown. "I wanted to share my wealth with children," Miss McCarty told the New York Times.

Marjorie Carter McCarthy
2006 - A resident of Alleghany County, VA, Mrs. McCarthy was a former high school teacher and organist. She left five bequests of $1.4 million each to the following institutions: The American Cancer Society, Atlanta, GA; The American Diabetes Association (Alexandria, VA); The American Heart Association (Dallas, TX) - all for unrestricted use; also to Dabney S. Lancaster Community College Educational Foundation (Clifton Forge, VA) for educational programs and scholarships; and to Washington and Lee University (Lexington, VA) designated for building improvements and scholarships. Mrs. McCarthy's late husband, Lawrence L. McCarthy was a 1929 graduate of Washington and Lee University.

Lois McClure
2006 - Ms. McClure donated $1 million to the Visiting Nurse Association of Chittenden and Grand Isle Counties, Vermont. She is the widow of Warren J. McClure, who owned the Burlington Free Press in Vermont.

Martha McCrory
2006 - Donated $1.5 million to the St. Andrew's Sewanee School, TN to construct a performing arts center. She is the founder and retired director of the Sewanee Summer Music Center.

Margaret McDermott
2000 - Widow of Eugene McDermott, a co founder of Texas Instruments, she gave $32 million to the University of Texas at Dallas to create the Eugene McDermott Scholars Program, which will provide scholarships to 20 outstanding college freshmen each year.

Nan Tucker McEvoy
2001 - A resident of San Francisco and former chairman of the San Francisco Chronicle, Ms. McEvoy made a $10 million gift to the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC. The donation will help renovate the Old Patent Office Building, which houses the museum and the National Portrait Gallery.

Miriam McFadden
2004 - Ms. McFadden, a retired administrator at the Ded Wallace Mental Health Center (Nashville) donated $1.2 million to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her gift will be used to recruit and retain faculty members at the School of Social work, which Ms. McFadden attended.

Cathleen McFarlane-Ross
2001 - Mrs. Ross, a resident of West Palm Beach, FL made a $1 million pledge to Pennsylvania State University (University Park). The gift will fund a professorship and a scholarship fund in materials science and engineering. Her late husband, Norris (Mac) McFarlane, owned the Macalloy Corporation in Charleston, SC.

Barbara McKillup
1996 - created The Libri Foundation in her home in Portland, OR to distribute books to small libraries around the U.S. In six years she has given almost $250,000 worth of books to 245 libraries, from an island in Maine to an Indian reservation in South Dakota.

Edna McLaughlin
2001 - Gave $2.8 million from her estate for scholarships at the Eastman School of Music.

Helen Myers McLoraine
2003 - Ms. McLoraine, a resident of Denver, made a $5 million bequest for the Scott Hamilton Cancer alliance for Research, Education and Survivorship at the Taussig Cancer Center of the Cleveland Clinic. Ms. McLoraine was a private investor in the gas and old industry. Olympic gold medalist Scott Hamilton, who was treated for testicular cancer at the Taussig Center, is among the many figure skaters she had sponsored. Ms. McLoraine died in Dallas at the age of 84 in January, 2003.

Genevieve McMillan
2007 - Ms. McMillan donated $1 million to Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD. The gift will endow a professorship in painting. Ms. McMillan donated the gift in honor of her friend Reba Stewart, a former faculty member at the college.

Carol McMurry, Gayle Kinnison and Susan Samuelson
2000 - These three daughters of Neil McMurry of Casper, WY donated $5 million to the Wyoming Community Foundation for endowment. Neil McMurry founded the McMurry Oil Company.

Ruby Vann Crumpler McSwain
2000 - Ruby Vann Crumpler McSwain of Sanford, NC gave $1.2 million to construct an education center at the J.C. Raulston Arboretum at North Carolina State University.

Gwen McWhorter
2001 - Donated $1 million from her estate to the University of Alabama at Birmingham for a chair in geriatric medicine.

Sheila Megley
2001 - Donated $1.5 million to Regis College for the endowment.

Alma Meinest
1999 - Resident of Seattle, schoolteacher and investor, Mrs. Meinest made bequests to several institutions of higher education in the northwest. Her husband was vice president and general manager of the Washington Athletic Club. Endowments include:

• $2.4 million to Pacific Lutheran University (WA)

• $2.4 million to Seattle Pacific University
  

• $2.4 million to University of Puget Sound (WA)
  

• $2.4 million to Whitman College (WA)

Gwen Avenell Mellinger and Michele Mellinger
2001 - Gwen and Michele Mellinger left $4.6 million from their estates for the support of programs at Houston Baptist University.

Mrs. Paul Mellon
2001 - Donated $1 million from her estate to the Rhode Island School of Design for scholarships and for programs to increase the diversity of the student body.

Janice Mendelson
2006 - Donated $2.2 million to Our Lady of the Lake University, San Antonio, TX to establish an endowment for the International Folk Culture Center. A resident of San Antonio, Ms. Mendelson is a retired Army surgeon.

Pauline Mergenthaler
2001 - A $2.5 million gift from the trust of Mrs. Mergenthaler has gone to Union Memorial Hospital, Baltimore, MD, for renovations. She died in 1986 at the age of 91. Her father invented the Linotype printing machine.

Shirley A. Meyer
2000 - Donated $1 million to the Monroe County Community College (MI) to endow arts programs. Her father-in-law, August F. Meyer, founded Monroe Auto Equipment Company.

Vivian Davis Michael and Gladys Gwendolyn Davis
2001 - Vivian D. Michael and Gladys G. Davis donated $18.4 million from their estates to West Virginia University, Morgantown, where the two sisters had attended school. Gladys Gwendolyn Davis, who died in January, worked for the federal government in Washington before her return to Morgantown. Vivian Davis Michael, who died in 1998, was a stock market investor and a social studies teacher in Monogalia County, WVA. Of their total donation, $16.2 will go for scholarships, professorships and other programs at the agriculture school. The remainder will support the colleges of law and creative arts and the university's libraries.

Bette Midler
1996 - Leader of a campaign to provide support for the parks of New York City

Ann Eickenroht Miller
2005 - Ms. Miller left a $1 million bequest to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (Dallas). A real estate developer in Texas, she died in 2000. The bequest will be used to establish a scholarship fund in the name of her son, Edmund Eickenroht.

Martha Miller
1999 - A $3 million bequest from Mrs. Miller went to Hope College (MI) to construct a center for the dance program. She is the widow of Howard Miller, founder of a clock company.

Sydell Miller
2005 - Made a $70 million pledge to the Cleveland Clinic with her two daughters, Lauren Spillman and Stacie Halpern, for a new cardiac center. Ms. Miller has said that her gift was made to show gratitude for care that family members had received. Ms. Miller and her husband Arnold, who died in 1992, founded Matrix Essentials located in Solon, OH. The firm manufactures hair and beauty products.

Marilyn Monter
2006 - Ms. Monter is vice president of the Holiday Organization, a real estate development company located in Westbury, NY. She donated $1 million to Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY for campus improvements and scholarships for students in the Honors College and the School of Law. Ms. Monter is secretary of the University's Board of Trustees and a 1976 alumna of Hofstra Law School.

Gratia (Topsy) Montgomery
Contributed the following gifts:

• $5 million to build a Small Waterplane Area Twin Hull research vessel at the Wood Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2000

• $3 million for a coastal research vessel at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, 2000

• $5 million to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (MA) to endow the Coastal Research Center from this South Dartmouth, MA resident, 1996

Darla Moore
2004 - Ms. Moore pledged $45 million to the University of South Carolina at Columbia for endowed professorships, renovations and scholarships at the school of business. She is executive vice president of Rainwater, an investment company in Fort Worth, TX. She said she would provide $15 million after the university matches that sum with financing from other sources. The university will have to raise the additional $30 million from private sources to get the rest of the gift. Ms. Moore, who grew up in Lake City, SC is a trustee of the university and gave the business School $25 million in 1998.

Kate C. Moore
2003 - A speech pathologist in Massachusetts, Ms. Moore donated $2 million to Planned Parenthood Federation of America New York in the form of an unrestricted charitable trust. She died in June 2002.

Blanche Swift Morris
2001 - A $1.5 million bequest from Ms. Morris of Chicago went to Saint Xavier University, (Chicago) for capital improvements and endowment.

Ann Morse
2007 - Left $6 million from her estate to the University of Iowa (Iowa City, IA) to support study abroad scholarships for needy students. Ms. Morse's late husband, John, was an alumnus of the university and a partner at Cravath, Swaine  & Moore, a New York law firm. He died in 2004 at the age of 94. Ms. Morse died in 2006 at the age of 86.

Shirley Kaufman Morse
2001 - Ms. Morse donated $1.2 million from her estate to Goucher College for scholarships.

Lucy Goldschmidt Moses
1983 - $5 million to Jewish Philanthropies of New York to support wide-ranging services, such as providing help for the city's aged and disabled

Margaret Mosher
2000 - Donated $3 million to Johns Hopkins University to create a center for corneal-disease research at the Wilmer Eye Institute. A resident of Santa Barbara, CA, she is the widow of Samuel B. Mosher, founder of Signal Oil and Gas Company of Los Angeles.

Lady [Anne Radcliffe] Mowlson
1643 - To establish the first scholarship fund at Harvard College

Nancy Baird Mulheren
2004 - A 1972 graduate of the college and a member of the college's Board of Trustees, Ms. Mulheren donated $2.5 million for a new residence hall at Roanoke College, Salem, VA. She is a resident of Rumson, NJ

Elizabeth S. Munnecke
1999 - The Arlington Community Foundation (VA) announced a $1,000,000 bequest from the estate of Mrs. Munnecke, whose late husband, Charles, was a U.S. Army colonel and a lawyer who worked for the Judge Advocate General. The bequest was designated for scholarships for graduates of Arlington County public high schools.

Julia Munroe Woodward, Mary Gray Munroe Cobey, and Margaret Munroe Thrower
1997 - $3 million each to Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia from these sisters who graduated from the school in the 1930s. They expressed the hope that other sets of sisters would be similarly motivated to support the college. Originally from Quincy, Florida, Munroe family members were early investors in The Coca-Cola Company.

Lillian Jordan Muse
1999 - A $2.8 million bequest from the estate of Lillian Jordan Muse of Richmond, VA went to Roanoke College (VA) for a professorship in religion and for unrestricted use. Her late husband, Fred, sold real estate and automobiles.

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