Kroc Provides $1-Million Gift for San Diego Soviet Festival

Three days before Mayor Maureen O’Connor is scheduled to leave on a trip to the Soviet Union, McDonald’s restaurants magnate Joan Kroc bid her bon voyage by agreeing to donate $1 million to help finance the mayor’s planned Soviet Arts festival.

The donation, announced by O’Connor at a City Hall press conference Tuesday, will pay for a significant part of O’Connor’s project, currently scheduled for 1990 at an estimated cost of $3 million to $4 million.

O’Connor said the donation will also help her to land top Soviet performers for the festival when she tours four Soviet cities during the 18-day trip that begins Friday.

Support From Soviets

“We are well on our way to having a very successful festival, if we can get the Soviet Union’s permission and cooperation, which I think we can if we go to the Soviet Union with $1 million in the bank,” O’Connor said.

The donation, in the form of McDonald’s stock, came with no requests that the festival bear Kroc’s name and no restrictions on how the money can be used--other than that it be spent on the festival or preparations for it, O’Connor said.

But “as far as I’m concerned, we can name the festival after her,” O’Connor said.

Kroc has in the past donated large sums of money to numerous and diverse causes, including $6 million to Notre Dame University’s International Institute for Peace Studies; $3.3 million to the San Diego Zoo for construction of an exhibit housing birds, reptiles and mammals native to Asian rain forests; a $3-million grant to San Diego’s St. Vincent de Paul Joan Kroc Center for the homeless, $1 million for AIDS research; and $1 million to the Democratic National Committee.

Officials at her foundation could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Terms of Gift

The donation will be made after the San Diego City Council moves to accept the donation today, and will remain in an interest-bearing account until it is spent, said City Atty. John Witt. Kroc reserved the right to take back the money if it is not spent by 1990, but could grant an extension of that deadline, O’Connor said.

O’Connor said that Kroc envisions the grant as a challenge to others in the private sector to help O’Connor create the monthlong festival, which she made the centerpiece of her State of the City address this year.

Kroc “believes, as I do, that San Diego is about to take its rightful place as a player on the international stage,” O’Connor said. “To do this, San Diego must offer more than just the temperate weather and clean beaches of a resort town. She must also offer the diversity . . . of art and culture that constitute the hallmark of any great city.”