San Francisco businessman and philanthropist Lorry Lokey, who says his Portland elementary school teachers started him on the road to success, pledged $10 million to the University of Oregon College of Education on March 1 for its new building project and then increased his pledge with a $2.5-million challenge gift.

If the college can raise $2.5 million from other donors by June 30, 2007, Lokey will match it, bringing the full amount of his gift to $12.5 million, said President Dave Frohnmayer.

“Where would any of us be if we did not have good teachers to inspire us?” Lokey asked. “I credit my elementary school, Alameda School in Portland, as the starting point for my success. I would not have made it without those teachers. That is why I wanted to support education in Oregon by contributing to an updated education building.”

Lokey’s gift, added to the matching funds from other donors, would complete the financing for the $48 million project. The gift is the third significant donation Lokey, a Grant High School alumnus, has made to the university in the past 18 months.

Michael Bullis, interim dean at the College of Education, said Lokey’s gifts, combined with others including a $10-million lead gift from the HEDCO Foundation, provide the necessary match for the $19.4 million in state bonding authority introduced by Gov. Ted Kulongoski and approved by the Oregon Legislature for the project last year.

Lokey Increases Music School Gift

Less than a week after the announcement of Lokey’s $12.5 million gift for the College of Education building, University of Oregon President Dave Frohnmayer announced that Lokey has increased an earlier $4 million donation for the School of Music and Dance’s renovation and expansion project with a $1 million challenge gift—for a total commitment of $5 million to the project.

Lokey’s $1 million will come through if the school can raise $1 million from other donors by December 31, 2006. The $2 million will complete funding for Phase I of the project, which had been budgeted for $15.2 million but is now projected to cost $17.2 million because of inflation.

Lokey likes to use his gifts to increase participation from others. A total of $2.5 million of his gift for the education building was a challenge gift, which must be matched with gifts from other donors by June 30, 2007. “It’s very important to see others than those of us coming in with a big chunk of money participating in the university’s expansion,” Lokey said. “People who give $100 or $1,000 are just as important as those who give $1 million.”

Including his most recent gifts, Lokey has pledged a total of $22 million to become one of the University of Oregon’s top donors. Besides his gifts for education and music, he gave $4.5 million to help fund the School of Journalism and Communication’s new George S. Turnbull Center in Portland.

Lokey is the founder and chairman of Business Wire, a leading global distributor of corporate news headquartered in San Francisco. The company was purchased in January by Berkshire Hathaway, the international business conglomerate headed by billionaire Warren Buffett.

Lokey’s gift brings the university’s current fundraising initiative, Campaign Oregon: Transforming Lives, to a total of $396.6 million toward the $600 million goal. The campaign, which began in 2001 and ends in 2008, is collecting private gifts for student scholarships, faculty support, academic programs, and new campus facilities.

For more information on:
College of Education, visit: http://education.uoregon.edu/
The School of Music and Dance, visit: http://music.uoregon.edu/
Campaign Oregon: Transforming Lives, visit: http://campaign.uoregon.edu/