The University of California, Irvine, said Wednesday it received a $21 million gift from the estate of M.A. Douglas, a former Orange resident.
UC Irvine said the gift enabled it to reach a $50 million fundraising goal for its new $556 million hospital at UCI Medical Center. The hospital will be renamed UC Irvine Douglas Hospital in honor of the donation.
Chancellor Michael Drake, in a release, called the gift “transformative” and said it “dramatically improves” the university’s ability to deliver healthcare to the Orange County community.
Douglas was a Colorado native who spent 33 years with B.F. Goodrich and later became a real estate developer, said Michael Hayde, the Douglas estate’s trustee and chief executive of Irvine-based apartment company Western National Group.
Douglas founded IPS, a company that developed, built and managed more than 10,000 apartments, primarily in Orange County.
UCI opened the first phase of its 482,428-square-foot new hospital in March, with a second phase scheduled to open in 2011.
The university built the facility to meet demand and in response to California’s hospital seismic safety law, passed after the 1994 Northridge earthquake that requires all acute-care hospitals to be able to stay operating after a major earthquake by 2030.
