Rockefeller University in New York City has announced that David Rockefeller, honorary chairman and life trustee of its board, has pledged $100 million to the institution.

The university will use $30 million of the gift, the largest in its history, to support the newly named David Rockefeller Graduate Program, creating new opportunities for graduate students in areas related to global health. Nearly twenty laboratories at the school are already exploring problems related to infectious diseases responsible for high mortality rates worldwide, including HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, SARS, hepatitis C, Chagas disease, malaria, and cholera. The remainder of the gift, $70 million, will be used to restore and modernize old buildings and support research at the school.

The university was founded in 1901 by Rockefeller's grandfather, John D. Rockefeller, as the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, the nation's first biomedical research institution. David Rockefeller joined the board of trustees in 1940 and, in 1950, succeeded his father, John D. Rockefeller Jr., as board chair, a position he held until 1975. "For more than a century, Rockefeller University has fulfilled the mission that my grandfather and father had envisioned — to produce the discoveries that would benefit humankind," said Rockefeller. "Having played a small part in Rockefeller University's expansion and revitalization in the twentieth century, I am delighted to be able to support its continued innovation and study with this pledge."

Just shy of his ninetieth birthday, Rockefeller has given away more than half a billion dollars in his lifetime, including a recent $100 million gift to the Museum of Modern Art, which his mother helped found in 1929. "I really don't remember ever feeling overwhelmed or oppressed by coming from a wealthy family, but I never took it for granted," he recently told the New York Times. "To the extent we have wealth, we should use it for the benefit of others."