OSU gets $8 million private donation.

Byline: Greg Bolt The Register-Guard

Oregon State University has received its sixth-largest private gift ever, an $8 million donation from the late philanthropist Hallie Ford to fund a new center for family and children's health.

Part of the donation is in the form of a challenge gift that will require OSU to raise a $2 million match, which will bring the total to $10 million. The money will be used for a new building and an endowment to recruit a top-level director.

The new center will be known as the Hallie Ford Center for Healthy Children and Families and will be part of OSU's College of Health and Human Sciences. It will take a broad approach to issues such as early childhood development, school readiness and childhood obesity by going beyond biology and taking into account family and community environment, psychology and behavior.

"What makes this unique is that our research looks at children's health holistically, from neuron to neighborhood," Tammy Bray, dean of the College of Health and Human Services, said in a statement announcing the gift.

Ford and her husband, the late Kenneth Ford, founded and built up what is now Roseburg Forest Products. She died June 4 at age 102 and had been a longtime patron of the arts and other causes.

"Through her philanthropy, Hallie Ford has provided an opportunity to thousands of children and families throughout Oregon and the nation," OSU President Ed Ray said.

The new center will conduct research and outreach programs taking a life-span and preventive approach to child and family health. Childhood obesity, for example, will be explored through physiology, nutrition and diet as well as home and school influences.

Fundraising for the challenge gift is expected to take place over the next two years. A construction site and schedule have not been determined.