(John Schreiber)
January to December 2005: The Board of Trustees authorizes planning of a major gifts campaign. The 15-person Campaign Leadership Council is established. Five co-chairs are selected: Collins Sharp Altshuler (’48), Gerald J. Ford (’66, ’69), Ray L. Hunt (’65), Caren Prothro (’66) and Carl Sewell (’66).
January 2006: Gifts from members of the Board of Trustees create first endowed scholarships and first endowed faculty position of the campaign.
March 2006: Meadows Foundation donates $33 million to the Meadows School of the Arts.
May 2006: A $1 million gift from Jeanne Roach Johnson (’54) supports the renovation of the music practice rooms in Meadows and creates Jeanne Johnson Piano Guest Artists Endowment Fund.
June 2006: A $2.5 million gift David B. and Carolyn Miller establishes David B. Miller Endowed Professorship in the Cox School of Business and provides support for SMU Athletics.
August 2006: Ray L. and Nancy Ann Hunt donate $35 million. Margaret McDermott and Nancy Harmon give $1 million to renovate the Meadows Museum plaza.
September 2006: SMU dedicates the J. Lindsay Embrey Engineering Building, which is LEED certified.
November 2006: The Embrey Family Foundation gives $1 million for the development of the Embrey Human Rights Education Pilot Program.
December 2006: Ground breaking ceremony for the new Crum Basketball Center after charitable donations from Gary Crum (’69) and wife Sylvie.
January 2007: Trust established by the estate of former U.S. Congressman and Judge Brady P. Gentry providing a gift of $2 million to support scholarships for students from East Texas counties.
September 2007: Ground breaking ceremony on the Perkins Protho Hall, made possible by a $6 million donation from the Perkins-Protho Foundation and trustee Elizabeth Perkins-Protho (’39).
October 2007: A $10.1 million gift from W.W. Caruth Jr. Foundation of Communities Foundation of Texas establishes the Caruth Institute for Engineering Education and provided a lead gift for Caruth Hall.
November 2007: Annette Caldwell Simmons (’57) and Harold Simmons provide a gift of $20 million endowing the Annette Caldwell Simons School of Education and Human Development.
December 2007: Trustee Richard Ware (’68) provides a $1 million in support of several university priorities, including initiatives in the athletics department and the SMU-in_Taos campus.
February 2008: Donors to the Circle of Champions led by Gerald J. Ford (’66) (’69) provide head football coach June Jones with financial resources to support efforts to build a winning Division I-A football program. Also The George W. Bush Presidential Library Foundation announces that SMU has been chosen as the site for the George W. Bush Presidential Center.
March 2008: David B. Miller (’72) (’73) and D. Scott Luttrell (’77) establish the EnCap Investments and LCM Group Alternative Asset Management Center in the Cox School of Business with a gift of $3 million. Also the Texas Instruments Foundation endows the Texas Instruments Distinguished Chair in Engineering Education and Director of the Caruth Institute for Engineering Education.
April 2008: The SMU School of Engineering receives an in-kind software grant of $5.7 million from Siemens PLM Software.
May 2008: SMU President R. Gerald Turner reports to the Board of Trustees at its May meeting that more than $300 million in early campaign commitments has been received and that an international campaign volunteer structure is in place.
