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COPYRIGHT 2000 Texas Monthly, Inc.
FROM HOUSTON HOOPERSTAR CHARLES BARKLEY TO A PASSEL OF PREPPIE DALLASITES, THE MANTRA OF LAST YEAR'S TOP PHILANTHROPISTS WAS: BE TRUE TO YOUR SCHOOL.
THE BOOMING TEXAS ECONOMY AND the burgeoning ranks of Big Rich inspired a massive show of generosity in 1999, with major gifts totaling more than $340 million. Many were directed to the arts, like the new performing arts center planned for Austin; some went to health organizations like Memorial Hermann Healthcare System in Houston. But overwhelmingly, the beneficiaries of this pre-Y2K largesse were schools--and not just universities. In the midst of a major capital campaign, St. Mark's School of Texas in Dallas corralled more than $20 million, mostly from alumni and their parents. Talk about your class acts.
The criteria for inclusion in our roundup of the year's top philanthropists remain the same:
* We list only gifts of at least $1 million made between January 1 and December 31.
* We don't count corporate gifts, so we can't recognize the good works of the SBC Foundation, the charitable arm of San Antonio's SBC Communications, which was named the nation's sixth-most-generous corporate foundation by Worth.
* We don't count gifts in which the giver's identity wasn't revealed--and there were many in 1999, from $14.5 million to endow scholarships at Texas Tech University, in Lubbock, to $2 million to improve the design of a bridge that will be built in Dallas. (More than $3 million of St. Mark's total was given anonymously.)
* We list only givers whose primary residence is in Texas.
* Finally, we include only living givers. Deceased donors like Sally C. Harrington Jackson of Dallas, whose estate bequeathed $10 million to Juliette Fowler Homes, don't make the cut. Of course, we're grateful just the same.
AUDREY JONES BECK
Houston, $80 million
Forty-seven Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings valued at an estimated $80 MILLION to the MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, HOUSTON. The paintings, which include works by Cezanne, Monet, and Renoir, have been on display at the museum since 1974 along with 23 others previously donated by Mrs. Beck and her late husband, John. Mrs. Beck is the daughter of the late Jesse Jones, who founded Houston Endowment, Texas' largest philanthropic foundation.
HENRY B. AND PATRICIA TIPPLE
Austin, $30 million
$30 MILLION to the UNIVERSITY OF IOWA, in Ames, Iowa--the largest individual gift ever made to the university--to endow its College of Business Administration, which will be renamed the Henry B. Tipple College of Business. An Iowa native and an alumnus of the university, Mr. Tippie is the vice chairman Of Rollins Truck Leasing Corporation in Austin.
JOE R. AND TERESA LOZANO LONG
Austin, $26.2 million
$20 MILLION to ARTS CENTER STAGE, in Austin--the largest gift to the arts in the city's history--to help renovate Palmer Auditorium into a multi-venue performing arts center, which will he renamed the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Center for the Performing Arts. Mr. Long, a retired lawyer and hanker fondly remembers hearing Arturo Toscanini conduct the New York Philharmonic on the campus of his alma mater, the University of Texas at Austin, nearly fifty years ago.
$6.2 MILLION to the UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN for scholarships and professorships. Mrs. Long is also a UT-Austin graduate.
Robert C. and Janice McNair Houston, $17.5 million
$17.5 MILLION to RICE UNIVERSITY, in Houston, to fund programs at the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management. Mr. McNair is the franchise holder for Houston's new NFL team. In 1999 he sold the company he founded, Cogen Technologies, to Enron Corporation for $1.4 billion.
Louise Herrington Ornelas Tyler, $13 million
$13 MILLION to the BAYLOR SCHOOL OF NURSING, in Dallas, which will be renamed the Louise Herrington School of Nursing. Mrs. Ornelas is a co-founder of TCA Cable.
Lee and Ramona Bass Fort Worth, $12 million
$12 MILLION to the FORT WORTH ZOO to help develop an eight-acre habitat that will be home to bobcats, roadrunners, horned...
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