San Diego
The San Diego Zoo has received one of the largest single donations in its history, an unexpected $1.1 million gift from the estate of two La Jolla retirees that has been earmarked for gorilla exhibits now under construction.
John and Opal McDonald, a 92-year-old retired executive from Caterpillar Tractor Co. of Peoria, Ill, and his 85-year-old wife, had been members of the San Diego Zoological Society for 15 years, but had never indicated their plans to make the zoo a beneficiary of their estate, said Patrick O’Reiley, the zoo’s planned-giving director.
The gift, which zoo officials say puts them over the halfway mark in its $16-million fund-raising drive for the gorilla exhibit, is among the zoo’s largest ever. In 1986, Joan Kroc gave $3.3 million for the zoo’s Tiger River exhibit. In 1987 and 1988, Paul and Ione Harter of Coronado created a $1.75-million trust for the zoo, then deeded over their $3-million residence as well.
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