The Chronicle of Philanthropy has listed two donations to West Virginia University among the 66 largest gifts in America for 2001.

The $18.4 million dollar bequest from Gladys Gwendolyn Davis and her sister Vivian Davis Michael ranked 38th, while the $15 million dollar pledge from U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller and family ranked 45th.

“To have not only one, but two of our donors make this prestigious list is remarkable,”said WVU President David C. Hardesty Jr.”This is a true testament of the devotion and commitment our supporters have in making sure the quality of education students receive at WVU as well as the quality of our research missionare among the best in the country.”

The Davis gift is the largest private donation from individuals in WVU s history and targets $16.2 million to the College of Agriculture, Forestry and Consumer Sciences for scholarships, endowed professorships, faculty development programs and instructional facilities improvements.

In honor of the women and their mother, Estelle Conaway Davis, the college was renamed the Davis College of Agriculture, Forestry and Consumer Sciences. The remaining $2.2 million will benefit the Colleges of Law and Creative Arts and the new Downtown Library.

The $15 million dollar endowment from Sen. Rockefeller and his wife Sharon, his sisters Sandra Ferry, Hope Aldrich and Alida Messinger, and his uncles Laurence Rockefeller and David Rockefeller Sr. will go to the Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute research facility at WVU . The Institute was launched by Rockefeller in December 1999 and named after his mother, Blanchette Ferry Rockefeller, who died of Alzheimers disease in 1992. The gift represents the largest single donation to the Institute.

The Chronicle report said even though the nation was in a recession for most of last year, large donations continued apace. Gordon and Betty Moores gift of $5.8 billion to their San Francisco foundation coupled with their $300 million pledge to the California Institute of Technology topped the most-generous donors list.

College and universities continued to be the main recipients from big donors, The Chronicle said. Forty-three colleges were beneficiaries of the donors in 2001.

Both the Davis and Rockefeller gifts were made through the WVU Foundation, a private non-profit organization, which is the designated agency to generate, receive and administer gifts from individuals and organizations for the benefit of WVU and its affiliated organizations. The Foundation is in the midst of a $250 million dollar fund-raising effort on behalf of the University.