Newswise — Canton, N.Y. - Film legend and 1939 St. Lawrence University graduate Kirk Douglas and his wife, Anne, have announced that they will give $5 million through the Douglas Foundation to a scholarship they started at the University in 1999.
The gift will enhance the Kirk Douglas Scholarship fund, which supports students who represent diversity, have financial need and demonstrate excellence in academics and leadership. The gift creates what will now be the largest endowed scholarship at St. Lawrence and expands the availability of the premier scholarship to all four classes. It was previously available only to juniors and seniors.
Through the Douglas Foundation, Kirk and Anne Douglas have now given nearly $7.5 million to St. Lawrence to support this scholarship. “We deeply appreciate their dedication and generosity to the University and the opportunity their scholarship is providing for so many students,” said President William L. Fox.
The Douglas Foundation pledged a total of $50 million to five nonprofits this week, including the $5 million that Kirk Douglas is giving to his alma mater.
The Douglas Scholarship program at St. Lawrence will continue to support students of academic promise who have significant financial need or come from disadvantaged backgrounds. Douglas Scholars will receive loan-free financial aid and a stipend to allow them to pursue experiential opportunities, such as study abroad, internships and research.
Named one of the 50 greatest screen legends of all time by the American Film Institute, Kirk Douglas has appeared in more than 85 films, including classics such as Spartacus, Lonely Are the Brave, Lust for Life and Gunfight at the OK Corral. Douglas received an honorary Academy Award in 1995. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1981 and the National Medal of the Arts in 2001. In addition, he is a best-selling author, having written four memoirs.
Douglas grew up in Amsterdam, N.Y., and graduated from St. Lawrence University with a degree in English. While attending St. Lawrence, he was president of the student government organization and a member of the wrestling team and German club. He also participated in dramatic productions on campus. The University awarded him an honorary degree in 1958.
“I’m giving something back to the school,” he said in 2008, “because I think every person should try to make the world better any way that they can.”
Kirk and Anne Douglas founded the Los Angeles-based Douglas Foundation in 1964 to focus primarily on health and educational programs. “Anne and I are of one mind in our philosophical approach to philanthropy,” Kirk Douglas said in announcing the foundation’s gifts this week. “We believe caring is sharing.”
The foundation’s other gifts announced this week will go to supporting the Harry’s Haven Alzheimer’s unit at the Motion Picture & Television Fund’s retirement home and hospital in Woodland Hills, Calif.; the Anne Douglas Center for Women, which offers shelter, recovery assistance and employment programs at the Los Angeles Mission; the Center Theater Group’s Kirk Douglas Theater in Culver City, Calif.; and the Sinai Temple, a Westwood, Calif., synagogue that is home to the Kirk and Anne Douglas Childhood Center.
RSS