Plu Gets Largest Gift In History -- 41.8 Million Will Go Into Centennial Fund

A newspaper-publishing family has given Pacific Lutheran University $1.8 million, the largest gift in the college's history.

Elbert Baker, retired publisher of The Morning News Tribune in Tacoma, and his sister, Mary Baker Russell - whose husband George, former general manager of the newspaper, died in 1986 - presented the gift as part of a $30 million fund-raising campaign for the college's centennial this year.

The gift ``has once again underscored the families' faith and support of the greater Tacoma community,'' said PLU President William Rieke.

A $5.5 million music building, the centerpiece and primary capital goal of the campaign, will be named the Mary Baker Russell Music Building, Rieke said yesterday. Construction will begin by next spring.

The building will fill a regional need for a first-rate musical-arts center, Rieke said. Its most prominent feature will be a 500-seat concert hall.

PLU's nationally recognized music program will gain improved instructional areas and badly needed practice rooms, said Richard Moe, dean of the PLU School of the Arts.

The music department now is housed in Eastvold Auditorium, built in 1952 when there were 20 music majors and seven faculty members. Today the department has 150 students and 42 full-time and part-time faculty members.

The fund-raising effort will double the university's endowment from $5 million to $10 million and support faculty research and new academic programs, said Luther Bekemeier, vice president for development.

The money also will help pay off capital improvements completed between 1985 and 1987.

The PLU Centennial Fund represents the second phase of a 10-year, $50 million campaign. During the first phase, from 1980 to 1985, the university built the Rieke Science Center and Names Fitness Center, undertook renovations and increased the endowment.