Cornell donation gives finishing touch to Andersen School
By Daily Bruin Staff
April 16, 1996 9:00 p.m.
Wednesday, April 17, 1996
$6 million gift helps pay construction costs, research
endowmentsBy Suzanne Scollo
Daily Bruin Contributor
In honor of their $6 million donation, one of three new
buildings at the Anderson School was renamed the B.J. and Clark
Cornell Hall.
The charitable trust donated by the Cornells will be used to pay
the cost of the already-completed seven-building complex and to
provide endowments for research to chair professors in the
school.
"We take great pride in adding the Cornell name to a major part
of our management complex," said Anderson School dean William
Pierskalla in a recent statement.
The $79 million management complex, completed last June,
consists of an administration building, a library, a convocation
hall, an executive education building and three classroom buildings
with space for faculty offices.
Five of the other six buildings are also named after major
donors.
While the Cornells were unwilling to comment on their donation,
their son Bradford, a professor of finance at the Anderson School,
said that his parents wanted to make a major charitable
contribution after the sale of the family business to a New York
Stock Exchange company.
Clark Cornell graduated from USC in 1947 after serving as a
fighter pilot in World War II. He later founded Forms Engineering
Company, one of the West’s leading direct-mail printers and a
creator of one of the first word processors.
Being their first significant contribution, the Cornells debated
between donating the money to UCLA or Stanford University, where
their four children attended.
Because complications existed in developing a project for the
funds at Stanford, the couple chose UCLA because renovation plans
already existed at the Anderson School.
Cornell, who desired to advance intellectual and entrepreneurial
scholastics with his donation, also chose UCLA in order to give
others the same opportunities that he has had during his life.
The graduate school, created in 1939, was renamed after John
Anderson in 1987 after he donated $15 million. Plans for the new
complex were created with hopes to maximize the technological
possibilities for the future.
"The university is a breeding ground for producing intelligent
capital for the future," Bradford Cornell said. "That is why (the
Cornells) wanted to make a contribution to the community."
