Kroc Donates $3.3 Million to San Diego Zoo

Joan Kroc, widow of McDonald’s restaurant founder Ray Kroc, made a personal donation of $3.3 million to the San Diego Zoo on Thursday.

The gift is the largest donation to the San Diego Zoo and among the largest individual donations in the city’s history.

Kroc, 56, owner of the San Diego Padres baseball team, pledged the money Monday to reconstruct the zoo’s Cascade Canyon, which will later be renamed for the Kroc family. Cascade Canyon is a nearly two-acre canyon that houses birds, reptiles and mammals native to Asian rain forests.

Before the check was presented, Mike Sund, public relations director for the Joan B. Kroc Foundation, read the following statement from Kroc:

“I am making this personal gift on behalf of my late husband, Ray, and our family because we have always felt that, in addition to being the finest zoo in the world, the San Diego Zoo literally provides something for everyone in this diverse community of ours.

“Much like the National League championship our Padres brought home last year, the zoo is a source of pride and entertainment that young and old, rich and poor, can share and enjoy. Best of all, the zoo has never had a bad year.

“We are especially pleased that our gift will help to create a simulated natural habitat where these animals can live in a way that reflects appreciation for the dignity of all living things.”

Kroc made the donation after reading newspaper accounts of deteriorating conditions at the zoo, said Charles L. Bieler, executive director emeritus of the Zoological Society of San Diego.

Bieler said he received a phone call from Kroc’s office Monday and met with her later that day to discuss the cost of renovating the canyon.

Zoo Executive Director Douglas Myers said Kroc chose to renovate the canyon because it was a top priority of zoo officials. The renovation, expected to cost $3.3 million, should begin in the fall and be completed by the summer of 1986.

The zoo had already collected $800,000 for a Sumatran tiger exhibit that will be located in the canyon, Myers said. That money will be diverted to other repairs needed at the zoo.

“I’ve never seen so many zeroes at one time on a check,” Bieler said as the check was presented.

“Whenever I’m asked the reason for the success of the San Diego Zoo, I always say that it’s due to the longstanding support of the community,” Bieler said. “Mrs. Kroc’s gift is a perfect example of the people of San Diego coming to the aid of the zoo in a time of need.”

In a strange way, the Kroc gift also could benefit other nonprofit organizations in San Diego, said a professional fund-raiser who asked that he not be identified.

“Her gift raises the stakes for people who want to be known as big givers in San Diego,” he said. “Gifts of $100,000 just won’t do it anymore--and five years ago that was a big gift. Kroc’s gift will make it easier and more likely that people will give at that level. Now it’s a new ballgame.”

The largest personal gift in San Diego County that sources could verify was $7.2 million, contributed to Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation in March, 1983, Scripps media relations manager Randy Barnhart said. Most of the money was used to build the Anderson Outpatient Pavilion, she said.

Kroc’s recent gift is the largest contribution she or the Joan B. Kroc Foundation has ever made, Sund said.

“She (Kroc) couldn’t remember a larger donation,” Sund said. “If a larger one has been made, it had to have been made by Ray Kroc before he died.”

The foundation, which has assets of more than $35 million, donated $1 million to aid famine victims in Africa and donated $1 million to establish a medical project at Dartmouth College Medical School, Sund said.

Kroc gave a personal $100,000 gift to establish a family survivors’ fund for victims of the San Ysidro massacre. Forbes magazine last fall estimated Kroc’s personal wealth to be more than $525 million.

Bill Ritter, San Diego County business editor, contributed to this report.