Alumnus donates to Athletics

James Dunning's $1.5 million gift will go toward renovating the White Training House. In one of the largest individual gifts in its history, the Athletic Department recently received $1.5 million to renovate the J. William White Training House next to Franklin Field. James Dunning, a 1970 Wharton graduate, donated the gift -- which brought the training house renovation fund to $2 million -- according to Athletic Director Steve Bilsky. He said the renovation, which will create an office complex for intercollegiate coaches, will cost approximately $3 million. As an undergraduate, Dunning played baseball and hockey for the University. He is currently chairman and CEO of the leveraged buyout company The Dunning Group, the consumer magazine publisher Petersen Holdings L.L.C. and TransWestern Publishing, a publisher of yellow pages. The restoration also will improve the training house's student cafeteria. The University spent $1 million improving the building's exterior in 1995. "I developed great memories and friendships during my four years at Penn, so I've chosen to give back to Penn," Dunning said. Dunning coaches his two sons on youth football, hockey and baseball teams at his home in Connecticut. "[Coaching] has given me an even greater appreciation" of how athletics develops "discipline, sportsmanship and team work," he said. Dunning, the son of a vice president of The New York Life Insurance Company, began his career at the securities firm Thomson McKinnon. But his low profile as a securities broker ended when he bought Rolling Stone. After several years running the popular magazine, he bought the publishing company Ziff Corp. A 1985 article in Fortune magazine reported that "Dunning's career has wended its way from counterculture to mainstream." "For five years he looked for good investments as president of Straight Arrow Publishers, the parent of Rolling Stone, which became a big cash generator while he was there. "Dunning left Straight Arrow when he got bored -- 'The job has maxed itself,' he says." In 1980 Dunning married Patricia Fitzgeorge, then editorial business manager of Rolling Stone and daughter of the president of Pennzoil. February's alumni brochure Pennsport! touts,"You may have heard of him through his association with Rolling Stone," and media often refer to "James Dunning, the one-time president of Rolling Stone." Last August, Dunning and several other investors bought Peterson Publishing, the 50-year-old, family-owned publisher of Teen, Sport and Motor Trend, among other titles. Peterson had been losing profits as the market for magazine advertisements softened.