Nike Founder Phil Knight Gives Away a Billion Dollars – the Largest Single Donation to a …

Phil Knight with wife Penny and Knight Cancer Institute Director Dr. Druker – Credit: OSHU (released) Phil Knight, who co-founded Nike alongside his former track coach at the University of Oregon (Bill Bowerman), has sprinted back to his alma mater with a huge philanthropic gift. And, when Mr. Knight called up the school president earlier in September, it’s fair to say he left a few jaws needing to be picked up off the floor. The news—that he and his wife Penny were going to be making a donation of $1 billion to U. of Oregon—has allowed the school to move forward long-standing plans to establish an entirely new college—one of engineering. Knight’s name is already easily found across the school campus, from the law center to the sports complexes to the library, and his foundation had already given the university $1 billion in combined gifts over the decades. The institution is sometimes referred to as the University of Nike. “One of the most successful businesspeople in the history of humanity, and one of the most generous philanthropists in the history of humanity, has said higher education is worth an investment of this magnitude,” Oregon president Karl Scholz said in an
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