Skaggs family foundations contributed a lead gift toward a $100 million campaign to establish fellowships for all students of The Scripps Research Institute’s graduate program.
The institute did not disclose the donation amount, only that it’s an eight-figure (at least $10 million) sum.
In recognition, the graduate program will be renamed the Skaggs Graduate School of Chemical and Biological Sciences.
The Skaggs family has a long history of donating to the institute, one of the world's largest independent, nonprofits focusing on research in the biomedical sciences.
Beginning in the 1980s, food and drugstore pioneer L.S. “Sam” Skaggs and his wife, Aline, began making financial gifts to the Institute, including underwriting the construction of The Al+ine W. & L.S. Skaggs Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Center. In 1996, their commitment of $100 million—at the time, one of the largest gifts ever to higher education—created The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology.
Although Sam passed away in 2013, followed by Aline in 2015, their strong philanthropic interest in scientific research and education is maintained by their children. Their son Mark Skaggs has served on the institute’s board and their daughter, Claudia Skaggs Luttrell, currently plays an active role on the board. In addition to her family’s gift to the endowment campaign, Luttrell made a personal donation, as did her adult children, Dallas and Jennifer.
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