Eleven private gifts totaling more than $23 million earmarked for University of Illinois programs at the Urbana-Champaign, Chicago and Springfield campuses were announced Friday, Oct. 2, 2009 at the U of I Foundation’s 74th Annual Meeting. Among the featured private donations is a deferred gift of $1.3 million from June Michael of St. Louis, Mo., to create the John D. Colombo Professorship in Law and provide need-based scholarships for students in the College of Law. June Michael worked for Bell Telephone, the FBI and Washington University at St. Louis, where she also attended school. The gift honors June Michael’s cousin, Professor Colombo, who teaches primarily in the tax field at the U of I College of Law.

The gift announcements were part of the three-day meeting conducted by the Foundation, an independent, nonprofit corporation that secures and administers private gifts for the University of Illinois. More than 500 alumni and friends of the University attended the Foundation Weekend events held on the Urbana-Champaign campus.

The gifts from alumni and friends, which will be included in the University’s ongoing $2.25 billion Brilliant Futures fundraising campaign, were highlighted at the U of I Foundation’s Business Meeting on October 2.

College of Law Dean Bruce Smith joins Professor John Colombo and his wife, Tina, in thanking June Michael for her $1.3 million gift establishing the John D. Colombo Professorship in Law at the UI Foundation Dinner October 2 in Urbana.