Record generosity: $38.5 million for UC Davis vision sciencee
The UC Davis Health System today (March 10) announced receiving $38.5 million in gifts and pledges from Ernest E. Tschannen to support the UC Davis Eye Center and the Center for Vision Science. These gifts make Tschannen the largest individual donor to UC Davis in the university’s 108-year history. (source)
Ernest Tschannen, a philanthropist, + Real Estate Investor, amassed much of his wealth in U.S. real-estate investments, owning more than 30 apartment complexes and is giving the majority of his estate to his favorite causes. His first gift to Sacramento State came in 2015 when he donated $750,000 to the “Power of 1,000 Hornets” campaign to finance a campus events center.
Tschannen (pronounced shannon) born in 1925 in Aarwangen, Switzerland, delivered bread to make spending money as a teenager. During World War II, he served as a guard along the Swiss border and earned a degree in mechanical engineering.
He began purchasing apartment complexes as investment properties and eventually chose to manage his real-estate portfolio full time.
“I started buying more buildings, and I finally didn’t have time for engineering,” he says. “I was too busy with looking at buildings and fixing up buildings. I did all of the repairs myself. I came with nothing to this country and just built it up.”
Ernest noticed in 2000 that his eyesight was failing, so he visited an eye clinic at the University of California at Davis, and later underwent successful surgery. In gratitude, he donated $25 to the university. But in addition to being a soft-spoken engineer, Tschannen proved to have a gift for investing. He made millions of dollars buying real estate (though he continued to live in a modest apartment even after becoming wealthy). So he was later able to give UC Davis $1.5 million so it could hire an optic-nerve specialist. And then in 2016, the 91-year-old donated $37 million so the university could unite all of its eye programs—which treat 55,000 local patients annually—in one new facility. (source)
“Throughout the course of our business together Scott has always proven to be a man of the utmost integrity and professionalism, on par with the those I trust and respect most.”
Ernest Tschannen, Real estate investor and philanthropist. Ernest’s record gift of $38.5 million is the largest individual donation to UC Davis in the university’s 108-year history.
