Helen Wills Roark of Carmel, 1920s and...

Helen Wills Roark of Carmel, 1920s and ‘30s tennis star, has given the University of California Berkeley a trust valued at more than $1.5 million to promote biological research.

Roark, then Helen Wills Moody, won eight Wimbledon singles championships and seven U.S. singles championships at Forest Hills, N.Y., and was an Olympic singles gold medalist in 1924.

Roark, a 1926 Cal graduate, gave the university 19 acres of land in Lafayette that had been in her family since the 1930s. The university plans to sell the land, which has been appraised at more than $1.5 million.