ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, December 20, 1995 TAG: 9512200064
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG
SOURCE: Associated Press
The College of William and Mary will get $10 million from a retired New Jersey businessman, making him the most generous donor in the school's 300-year history.
The announcement Tuesday came a day after the University of Virginia announced a $10 million donation from a Norfolk communications executive.
Jack Borgenicht, a retired garment industry executive who lives in Long Valley, N.J., gave $1 million to William and Mary less than a year ago to benefit international studies and research in aging and environmental physiology.
Borgenicht said he decided while he was driving to the Williamsburg school last month for a forum on the future of Arab-Israeli peace to donate $10 million more.
``This would be diverted to God knows where after I'm 6 feet in the ground,'' said Borgenicht, 84. ``I didn't want to lose all the fun.''
William and Mary President Tim Sullivan said some of the money will benefit the college's Wendy and Emery Reves Center for International Studies.
Borgenicht met the center's founder, Wendy Reves, at the symposium last month. He was an admirer of her late husband, who wrote a widely read book, ``The Anatomy of Peace,'' that was published in 1945.
Other funds will go to the physiology department, Sullivan said.
``It's a day of historical significance for the college at a place that's been around for nearly 303 years,'' Sullivan said. ``We try to use 'historic' carefully.''
Borgenicht became acquainted with the college in 1988 through his work with Ken Kambis, an associate professor of kinesiology who helped him train for mountain climbing. The day after he turned 81, in 1992, Borgenicht became the oldest man to reach the summit of Washington's Mount Rainier.
The University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business Administration received a $10 million matching-gift pledge from Frank Batten, chairman of Landmark Communications Inc., which owns The Roanoke Times.
The money will enlarge the Batten Challenge for Entrepreneurial Leadership, a $3.5 million fund founded in 1989 by Batten and his two children, who have degrees from the business school.
The two gifts are the latest among a number of high-dollar donations to Virginia's public colleges and universities in recent years.
UVa alumnus Thomas A. Saunders III of New York City has given $13 million to the business school. Alumnus David A. Harrison III of Hopewell has donated more than $16 million to the university. Individuals also have given the school rare document collections worth up to $30 million.
William and Mary has received other $10 million gifts.
Virginia Tech received $22 million from R.P. Pamplin, retired chief executive officer of Georgia Pacific Corp.
LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Jack Borgenicht tells reporters he didn't want toby CNBlose the fun of seeing where his money went.