Vanderbilt gets $340 mil. gift, one of the biggest ever

The donation, possibly the largest ever, came from Nashville CEO Martha Ingram. The donation, possibly the largest ever, came from Nashville CEO Martha Ingram.The Associated Press Ingram Charitable Fund, which is based in Nashville, donated 8 million shares in the company Monday -- worth nearly $341 million at yesterday's closing price of $42.56 a share -- to the school for a wide range of university programs. ''This gift is of incalculable importance to Vanderbilt,'' Vanderbilt Chancellor Joe Wyatt said. ''It is unprecedented in size and stands alongside Cornelius Vanderbilt's founding gift 125 years ago as a singular landmark in the history of this university.'' The railroad magnate gave $1 million to build and endow the university in 1873. Vanderbilt is a private research institution with a total enrollment of about 10,000 students spread between 10 schools and colleges. The Ingram gift is one of the two largest donations ever to an American college or university. A 1994 donation to New York University from Sir Harold Acton is valued at up to $500 million dollars. But that gift -- consisting of a 57-acre Italian estate, an art collection and other valuable assets -- is relatively hard to sell, making valuations somewhat tenuous. The Ingram fund was created in 1990 by Martha and Bronson Ingram with 20 million shares of Ingram Micro stock, and a requirement that at least 40 percent of the money be given to Vanderbilt. Bronson Ingram attended Vanderbilt and was president of its Board of Trustees from 1991 until his death in 1995. Martha Ingram, a current trustee of the school, said her husband's ''long-term vision, talent, hard work and love of Vanderbilt led him to create this special fund.'' Three of the couple's four children graduated from Vanderbilt. Santa Ana, Calif.-based Ingram Micro is the world's largest wholesale distributor of technology products and services, mainly computer goods, and is number 79 on the Fortune 500 list with $16.5 billion in sales for 1997. . The company was part of Nashville-based Ingram Industries until a 1996 spin-off and initial public offering. Martha Ingram sits on the company's board, although the company is no longer family-run. Ingram, 63, is chairperson and chief executive officer of the privately held Ingram Industries, which is involved with barge transportation, high-risk auto insurance and the manufacturing of oil and gas industrial equipment. Ingram Industries had sales of nearly $1.8 billion last year, according to Forbes magazine's Private 500 list. The company saw a nearly 23 percent jump in sales between 1996 and 1997. Ingram, once written off as a Nashville socialite, proved her business acumen after Bronson Ingram's death in 1995 after a year-long battle with cancer left her in charge of what was then a $10 million business empire. Analysts credit Ingram with successfully managing both the spin-off of Ingram Micro and the transfer of each of the business' divisions into the hands of her sons. At the same time, Ingram continues to be a force both in the company and at other companies -- she sits on the boards of the timber company Weyerhaeuser, First American Bank and the medical products producer Baxter International. Vanderbilt had a $1.5 billion endowment prior to the gift, placing the school among the 20 richest colleges and universities in America. Daily Pennsylvanian Campus News Editor Dina Bass contributed to this article.