A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:
David and Diana Sun gave $50 million through their Sun Family Foundation to back construction of the medical center’s Sun Family Campus, which when completed will be home to several buildings housing cancer and digestive-care practices, women’s health care, and an advanced surgical center. The Suns previously gave a $50 million donation to the building effort in 2022.
David Sun co-founded Kingston Technology, a company that creates software storage and memory products for computers and consumer electronics, in 1987. The Suns have been involved with the medical center for a number of years. Diana Sun served on the foundation’s Board of Directors and currently is a member of the hospital’s expansion committee.
Pennsylvania State University College of Engineering
E. Michael Ackley left $19 million to support a wide range of programs within the engineering school including scholarships, graduate fellowships, faculty and student research efforts, a professorship, and building and laboratory upkeep.
Ackley founded Ackley Machine Corporation in Moorestown, N.J., in 1976. Today, the company specializes in pharmaceutical printing, laser marking, laser drilling, and vision-inspection technology. He earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the university in 1960 and served in the U.S. Army after his graduation. He died in 2020 at 86.
University of Pennsylvania Wharton School
Mark Pincus gave $5 million to launch the Pincus Artificial Intelligence Lab for Organizational Innovation, where researchers will focus on developing ways to incorporate A.I. into organizational structures, and understanding how A.I. can assist businesses with product management and other tasks.
Pincus founded a number of Silicon Valley startups, including Zynga, a mobile social-gaming and generative A.I. company. He was an early investor in social media giants Facebook and Twitter, now X, and he co-founded Reinvent Capital, an investment firm.
Pincus started his career in finance. He worked as an analyst in Lazard Freres’s New Media Group and later served as vice president for Lazard’s Asian Capital Partner division in Hong Kong. A Wharton alumnus, he earned a bachelor’s degree in economics in 1988.
Pennsylvania State University
Charles (Skip) Smith gave $1 million to establish the Charles H. “Skip” Smith Soaring Waters Fountain Garden within the university’s arboretum and the H.O Smith Botanic Gardens. In 2007, he gave the university $10 million to build the 400-acre arboretum. He died in December, but the university didn’t announce his donation until last week.
Smith’s father, Harry O. (H.O.) Smith was a 1918 Penn State alumnus who founded H.O. Smith & Sons, a construction, real estate development, and rental company. Skip Smith graduated from Penn State in 1948 with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, and went on to work for the family business. In 1950 he founded what would later become State College Audio-Visual Supply.
To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated regularly.
