Hawaii’s World

By A.A. Smyser

Thursday, July 2, 1998

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Private gifts to
University of Hawaii

A local businessman who made substantial gifts to his Ivy League college once said he wouldn't give to the University of Hawaii because it was like giving to the state tax collector. He meant the Legislature would take gifts into account and reduce its UH appropriation accordingly.

I hope the autonomy over its affairs that the UH received from the 1998 Legislature will open up more well-stuffed wallets for UH support. A vital community and a vital public university go hand in hand.

My alma mater, Penn State, has pretty well demolished the idea that a gift to it is a gift to the state tax collector. Multimillion-dollar private gifts to it are common. It leans on the state legislature for less than 20 percent of its funding. Last year an alumni couple gave $30 million to start an honors college. Quite a few campus buildings are named for donors who made significant seed money contributions.

Giving to UH, fortunately, is catching on:

Duke Kahanamoku's widow, Nadine, has just left $3 million to the John A. Burns School of Medicine.

An anonymous donor gave $1.5 million to endow the Benjamin A. Kudo School of Law Chair.

Gifts of $1 million each have established the K.J. Luke Chair of International Banking and Finance and the Maurice J. Sullivan Family Chair in Cancer Research.

A Dai Ho Chun Chair in arts and sciences has been established in honor of a deceased faculty with gifts he made over several years.

Wanda Jane Pavela Kaspari, a Wisconsin native who retired in Hawaii, willed her body to the medical school and set up an $800,000 endowment to help future physicians complete their studies.

Sue Yong, a Maui alumna of UH who became an actress, and her husband, gave $500,000 for graduate scholarships to promote Chinese study.

The ACRS Foundation, Hawaii chapter, has given $855,000 over a number of years to assist graduate students in science and engineering.

Mark Watase and his Mark Foundation support the Hoaliku Drake four-year scholarship given each year to an incoming freshman from Nanakuli.

Businessman Donald Kim, a UH alum, has secured two endowments in support of engineering students. Also contributing to engineering scholarships have been Mrs. Sybil Heidi and George F. Loo. The amounts are "significant," says the University Foundation, which administers gifts, but the donors have asked that they not be specified.

An anonymous Maui couple founded a deferred charitable gift annuity that after their deaths will be used for "the highest priorities of Maui Community College."

Edwin Pauley, who made a fortune in oil, bought Coconut Island in Kaneohe Bay and vacationed there for years. The foundation he created has given the island to UH and now has funded a marine science research laboratory there to be dedicated this fall. The total gift is valued at $9.6 million.

Behind these large gifts are an increasing number of smaller ones. Over 12,000 alumni make annual gifts totaling $1.4 million. The McInery Foundation has given $50,000 to match gifts from first-time donors.

The UH Foundation's director, Donna Howard, is eager to work with potential donors and suggest varied ways to give -- gifts-in-kind (like real estate or book collections); stock, which can be tax-deductible to the donor at its appreciated value; deferred giving such as that of the Maui couple, and more.

Building a hefty endowment for the UH over the next few years is a primary goal of President Kenneth Mortimer. Hand-in-hand with autonomy, this can help the UH become a more outstanding public university, one of the best.

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A.A. Smyser is the contributing editor
and former editor of the the Star-Bulletin
His column runs Tuesday and Thursday.