Torchbearer: Summer 1996

Spirit of Giving

Donors have been exceptionally generous recently. Following are some major gifts.

• Computer software valued at $6.2 million from the California-based firm Synopsys. The software for the College of Engineering allows efficient design of computer chips.
  
  
• $5 million from H. Wheeler Hollingsworth of LaFollette, Tennessee, for the UT Institute of Agriculture and UTK women's athletics.
  
  
• $250,000 from Home Federal Bank of Tennessee for scholarships for business students.
  
  
• $178,000 from the ALCOA Foundation for training for graduate teaching assistants, engineering programs, and wildlife management scholarships.
  
  
• $100,000 from former UT trustee Bill Johnson and Rena Johnson to establish an endowment fund for students and faculty. The Johnsons, who live in Sparta, Tennessee, designated their gift to the library, the history department, and the football program.
  
  
• $100,000 for a scholarship fund honoring Evelyn Martin Shafer. The donors are Shafer's daughters Lyn Shafer Overholt and Elisabeth Shafer Sansom and their husbands, Dr. Gene Overholt and UT trustee Bill Sansom, all of Knoxville. Mrs. Shafer and both daughters are alumnae of the College of Human Ecology.
  
  
• $100,000 from Joel Katz ('69) of Atlanta for scholarships in the College of Law. Katz is founding partner of Katz, Smith & Cohen, one of the world's largest music entertainment law firms.
  
  
• $100,000 for the College of Law Center for Advocacy from the children of law graduate Thomas Ryan Prewitt Sr. of Memphis. The donors are Thomas R. Prewitt Jr., Thurston Hall Prewitt, Julian Jones Prewitt, and Mary Louise Carrick, all of Memphis. The elder Prewitt is senior partner of Armstrong Allen Prewitt Gentry Johnston and Holmes.
  
  
• $100,000 for a law professorship from the Nashville law firm Waller Lansden Dortch and Davis.
  
  
• $50,000 from the Tennessee Bankers Association to support the work of a faculty member in the College of Business Administration's finance department. Part of the gift also will go to UT's Financial Institutions Center.
  
  
• $25,000 from the Tennessee Press Association Foundation to the School of Journalism for computer equipment for a teaching and research lab.
  
  
• $25,000 from the estate of the late newspaper publisher Morris Simon to the UT Space Institute in Tullahoma.
  
  
• A gift of an undisclosed amount from General Shale Products Corp. to programs in the School of Architecture.
  
  
• An endowment for a faculty enrichment fund from Carl Maples, a retired Knoxville architect. The fund will allow School of Architecture faculty to pursue special studies and creative work.