Stanford Gets $33 Million Donation
02/27/07 -- AP DIGITAL - The founder of
Business Wire, an electronic distributor of news releases, donated $33 million
to help Stanford University build a stem cell research centre, the school
announced
Tuesday.
Lorry Lokey's donation is the largest contribution from an individual to the
Stanford medical
school. Stanford hopes to complete construction by 2011.
"The important thing to me is that stem cells might not only extend life, but
also improve
the quality of life, as so many people suffer in their later years," said Lokey,
79. "But I think
stem cells will have applications across the entire life span."
Lokey of San Francisco has made higher education and science a focus of his
philanthropy and already has a building named for him at Stanford, where he
graduated
with a journalism degree in 1949.
The Portland, Ore. native also has donated nearly $50 million to the University
of Oregon
and made contributions to Mills College in Oakland, the Technion-Israel
Institute of
Technology in Israel and his elementary school in Oregon.
His donations are made through his charity, the Jewish Community Endowment Fund
in
San Francisco.
Lokey, a former journalist and public relations executive, founded Business Wire
in 1961
and sold it last year to Warren Buffett's holding company Berkshire Hathaway
Inc. for about
$500 million. Business Wire has about 500 employees working in 24 U.S. offices
and
annual sales of about $125 million.
