Dale and Sarah Ann Fowler will give $45 million to Chapman University to help it establish an engineering school, on top of a previous $55 million commitment to its law school.
The gift and school were announced as part of Chapman President Daniele Struppa’s first State of the University address, given today at the Musco Center for the Arts at its main campus in Orange.
The Fowlers in 2013 pledged the $55 million for Chapman’s law school, which was renamed the Dale E. Fowler School of Law. Chapman said at the time that it was the second-largest gift ever to a U.S. law school.
Fowler made his fortune in real estate. He is a Chapman graduate, as are two of the couple’s children.
The Fowlers in 2007 gave $60 million to Gordon College in Wenham, Mass., where three of their grandchildren have attended.
Chapman as part of the State of the University address also said it will award an honorary doctorate on March 28 to José Plácido Domingo Embil, known widely as Plácido Domingo, the Spanish tenor, conductor, arts administrator and entrepreneur.
Domingo has recorded more than 100 complete operas, performs in six languages, serves as general director of Los Angeles Opera, and owns a restaurant, Pampano, in New York City, his website and Wikipedia said.