An Emotional Moment: A $100 Million Gift Over $5 Salads

Marion and John Anderson

Marion and John Anderson

‘THERE WAS A VERY PHYSICAL CONNECTION BETWEEN HIM AND THE UNIVERSITY’

Anderson smartly used his education. He passed his CPA exam while serving on the staff of a Navy admiral during World War II. When the war ended, he started work as an accountant with Arthur Andersen & Co., going to the Loyola University School of Law at nights to earn a law degree. He co-founded the Los Angeles law firm of Kindel & Anderson in 1953. Three years later, he launched what would become a business empire with the acquisition of a Hamm’s beer distributorship in downtown Los Angeles. At the time of his death from pneumonia. he had built privately owned Topa Equities Ltd. into a modern-day conglomerate with 33 subsidiaries involved in insurance, real estate, financial services, wholesale beverage distribution, automobile dealerships and manufacturing.

Through it all, he stayed close to the business school, grateful for the start it gave him. One of the Anderson’s sons, John E. Anderson, Jr., went to the business school and earned his MBA in the Class of 1977. So did their daughter-in-law, Doreen, who graduated in the same class.

“Almost until his last year (in 2011), he would walk five miles four times a week and their home is just a mile from here. He would weave his way through the town of Westwood and always come back through Anderson. He stopped to talk to students, and people would know who he was. So there was a very physical connection between him and the university.”

ONCE JOHN ANDERSON DIED, HIS WIDOW BECAME INCREASING INVOLVED WITH THE BUSINESS SCHOOL

When Anderson died, the business school issued a media release announcing his death. Until then, Marion had been involved in numerous community causes, says Olian, “but not the school because that was John’s thing. When he passed away, she became more and more involved at Anderson. She joined the board of visitors and the executive committee, and she became much more directly connected to the students and faculty.”

As a member of the school’s executive committee, Anderson also saw first hand the political opposition that emerged when Olian sought to make the full-time MBA program self-sustaining, a plan that would allow the school more financial freedom in exchange for giving up state funding. “She felt a compassion for this school and she went through the transition as i did to self-support,” says Olian. “She saw the need there.”

The two developed a close personal relationship. “She is totally grounded and humble,” adds Olian. “I am extremely close to her, and I adore her because she is so real and authentic. I think she feels trust, not just confidence in the school’s future but trust. To have such a remarkable person with great values get connected with the school and give a vote of confidence in it, that is an ideal relationship. I have always known that Marion is terribly connected to us and would want to make sure the school is on a footing where it can succeed. Our relationship is so much bigger than this.”

Largest Gifts To Business Schools

 

School Amount Donor Year
Chicago’s Booth School of Business $300 million David Booth 1997
Michigan’s Ross School of Business $200 million Stephen Ross 2004, 2013
Stanford Graduate School of Business $150 million Robert & Dorothy King 2011
UCLA Anderson School of Management $142 million John & Marion Anderson 1987, 2011, 2015
Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business $122 million David Tepper 2004, 2013
Stanford Graduate School of Business $105 million Philip Knight 2006
UC-San Diego $100 million Ernest Rady 2015
Columbia Business School $100 million Ronald Perelman 2013
Columbia Business School $100 million Henry Kravis 2010
Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School $80 million David Atkinson 2010
Florida’s Warrington College of Business $75 million Al & Judy Warrington 2014
Hawaii’s Shidler College of Business $69 million Jay Shidler 2014
Virginia’s Darden School of Business $62 million Frank Batten 1999
Northeastern’s D’Amore-McKim School $60 million Richard D’Amore & Alan McKim 2012
Thunderbird School of Management $60 million Sam & Rita Garvin 2004
Boston University’s Questrom School $50 million Allen & Kelli Questrom 2015
Tennessee’s Haslam College of Business $50 million Jim Haslam & family 2014
Georgia Tech’s Scheller College $50 million Ernest Scheller 2012
Harvard Business School $50 million Tata Group 2010
Yale School of Management $50 million Ned Evans 2010
Arizona State’s Carey School of Business $50 million William Carey 2003
Texas’ McCombs School of Business $50 million Red McCombs 2000
Arkansas’ Walton College of Business $50 million The Walton Family 1998

Source: AACSB

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