$2.5 million gift to UO to be split many ways.

Byline: Greg Bolt The Register-Guard

A University of Oregon graduate and his wife have donated $2.5 million to the school, a wide-ranging gift that will provide an economic spark to several building projects as well as help programs and students.

The gift from Dave and Nancy Petrone will be spread between scholarships, an endowed position for a librarian, the renovation of Condon Hall, a new biomedical research center and support for the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center.

A smaller amount also will benefit a special projects fund overseen by UO President Dave Frohnmayer.

Dave Petrone received his undergraduate degree in economics from the university in 1966 and an MBA in 1968.

He went on to co-found and chair Housing Capital Co. in San Mateo, Calif., which lends money to developers for residential housing.

He has been on the UO Foundation board of trustees since 1991.

He chaired the university's last fund-raising campaign and is helping lead the current fund-raising effort.

"It's the people of the university who inspire us," Petrone said in a statement. "The president, the professors, the staff, the alumni who care so much - they make the university the kind of organization we want to be involved with."

The gift is the largest the Petrones have made to the university but is not the first.

They also donated $1 million in 2001 to help with the expansion of Autzen Stadium, endow a journalism professorship and furnish a reading room in the Knight Library.

The donation will be split six ways: $600,000 will go toward the renovation and expansion of Condon Hall, $600,000 for an endowment to support operation of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center, $600,000 to endow a map and geographic informations systems librarian, $500,000 to endow four scholarships, $150,000 for the first phase of the new biomedical center and $50,000 for the president's special projects fund.

The Condon Hall project will cost a total of $6.9 million and fund a three-story, 15,000-square-foot addition to the 1925 building along with renovation of 5,000 square feet of existing space.

It will add modern classrooms and laboratories along with a new, state-of-the-art map library.

Fund raising for the project is under way.

Another project currently in the planning and fund-raising stage is the biomedical research center, which will be located in the Bowerman Family Building.

A planned environmental chamber to study the effects of temperature, humidity and pressure change on the human body is expected to be housed in nearby Esslinger Hall.

The scholarship portion of the gift will fund two Presidential Scholarships and two Dean's Scholarships.

"Dave and Nancy Petrone personify generosity and vision," Frohnmayer said. "With this gift, they have touched upon every cornerstone of our capital campaign - opportunity, inspiration, connection and discovery."

CAPTION(S):

The Condon Hall project will cost $6.9 million and fund a three-story, 15,000-square-foot addition to the 1925 building along with renovation of 5,000 square feet of existing space.