WORCESTER – The University of Massachusetts announced a $175 million donation from The Morningside Foundation to UMass Medical School on Tuesday, September 7.
The donation is unrestricted and more than doubles the Medical School’s endowment.
UMass Medical School Chancellor Michael Collins announced gift and that the school’s name would change to UMass Chan Medical School. Its graduate schools will become the T.H. Chan School of Medicine; the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing; and the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.
Governor Charlie Baker, University of Massachusetts President Martin T. Meehan, and members of the University of Massachusetts Board of Trustees were also at the announcement event on Tuesday.
The Morningside Foundation is a philanthropic organization founded by the Chan family. It donated $350 million to Harvard University in 2014.
Ronnie Chan is a billionaire business person and real estate developer in Hong Kong. Since succeeding his uncle as chairman of of Hang Lung Group in 1991, one of its subsidiaries, Hang Lung Properties, became one of the biggest real estate developers in Hong Kong.
Chan was born in Hong Kong and received his MBA from the University of Southern California. He was also a director at Enron Corporation when it filed for bankruptcy in 2001.
