Don Beall, who led Rockwell International during its days in Orange County, has given $6.6 million to the University of California, Irvine’s business school.
The Beall Family Foundation made the gift, which is set to expand activities and start programs at the Don Beall Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at UC Irvine’s Paul Merage School of Business.
The money also is set to support a year-old speaker series that has brought prominent executives to UCI to talk about innovation.
Beall was the face of Rockwell International, which spanned the aerospace, electronics and automotive industries, during the 1980s and 1990s.
He reitred from Rockwell in 1998 after a 30-year career.
The company became a major defense contractor during the aerospace boom of the 1980s and later sold or spun off various parts of the business.
In 1995, Beall oversaw the $5 billion sale of Rockwell’s aerospace and defense business to Boeing Co..
In 1999, he oversaw the spinoff of Rockwell’s chip arm as Newport Beach-based Conexant Systems Inc.
Other parts of the business exist today as Iowa’s Rockwell Collins Inc., a maker of aerospace electronics, and Rockwell Automation Inc. in Milwaukee, a maker of factory automation gear.
In June, the Business Journal reported that a gift from Beall was in the works.
