Donor gives $12.5 million for UO education building.

Byline: Greg Bolt The Register-Guard

A man who was inspired by his own elementary school teachers is giving the University of Oregon $12.5 million for a building that will help turn out new generations of classroom leaders.

The gift from San Francisco philanthropist Lorry Lokey includes a $10 million donation and a $2.5 million challenge grant. If other donors match the challenge gift, it will complete financing for the $48 million College of Education building and allow construction to begin about a year from now.

Lokey, 79, who recently sold his Business Wire news services company to billionaire Warren Buffett, said he hoped the gift not only gives the UO a 21st century building in which to train new teachers but also allows it to consolidate a program now spread out over 21 locations. Likening the fragmented college to a duck that has eggs all over town, Lokey said it's time to bring them together and cook up something nice.

"It's time to gather those eggs and make an omelet and put it on one plate," he said.

Although Lokey is an adopted Duck - the Portland native never attended the UO - it has taken him little more than a year to become one of its biggest donors. Since announcing his first gift in January 2005, Lokey has pledged $21 million to the university, second only to Nike co-founder and UO alumnus Phil Knight.

The total amount of Knight's gifts to the university has not been made public but is believed to exceed $50 million.

Lokey shares the No. 2 spot among UO donors with Portland's Ron and Patricia Peterson. In 2002, the Petersons donated the proceeds from the sale of a 350-unit apartment building they owned in Portland, giving $4 million to the Lundquist College of Business, $1 million to the Autzen Stadium expansion and placing the remainder in a trust that will later go to the business school.

Lokey previously pledged $4 million toward a new building for the UO School of Music and $4.5 million to help establish a journalism program in Portland, to be known as the George S. Turnbull Portland Center.

UO President Dave Frohnmayer heaped praise on Lokey, calling him "one of the most generous human beings on the face of this planet."

Lokey is known as a selfless philanthropist who shuns the spotlight. Despite the size of his gifts to the UO, none of the buildings he is helping to construct will bear his name.

"I don't give a dang," he said on Wednesday. "What matters is seeing the building and seeing it happen. Fifty years from now, nobody's going to know my name, but those buildings will still be there."

The new music building will be named for Frohnmayer's mother, MarAbel Frohnmayer, a graduate of the school and a lifelong music advocate. The education building will be named for the HEDCO Foundation, which also made a $10 million donation to the project.

Lokey, who also has given generously to Stanford and other universities, said he concentrates his philanthropy on programs that help children and said he owed much of his personal success to his teachers at Portland's Alameda Elementary School. He said the new UO education building will help ensure that Oregon teachers continue to inspire children.

"If the facilities are not good, the potential of some students, if not many students, is going to be trimmed a bit," Lokey said. "And we don't want that."

The new building will provide 100,000 square feet of new and renovated space with classrooms, faculty offices, modern teaching labs and clinics. It will allow programs spread out across campus and around the city to move to a central location and relieve crowding in the existing education and clinical services buildings.

It also will eliminate a number of old trailers and other "temporary" facilities, some of which have been in use for 30 years. The new building will be on what is now a parking lot on Alder Street south of the existing education building.

Lokey earned a journalism degree from Stanford University and spent a few years working for United Press International. He also served in World War II, working as a feature editor for Pacific Stars & Stripes. He founded Business Wire in 1961, and it grew to become an international media relations company.

The price Buffett paid for Business Wire was not disclosed, but reports at the time said the company had been appraised a year earlier at $600 million. It was earning $127 million a year when it was sold.

On Wednesday, Lokey didn't say how much he got from the deal but joked that he's "still trying to find a couple of contractor's wheelbarrows" to haul the cash. Lokey, who has three grown daughters, also hinted that he's not done giving away his money to help children, which he said is what makes him happy. "Over the next couple of years, I think I'm going to have a lot of fun," he said. "It's an extremely satisfying thing, and I think it's cheaper than buying prisons."

Frohnmayer said Lokey seems to have made donating to the UO a habit and said that's fine with him. "It's a habit which we're very happy to support," he said.