SANTA PAULA : College Receives $2.7-Million Grant
Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula has received a $2.7-million grant from a Wisconsin foundation to pay off a previous loan from the charitable institution, college officials said.
The gift from the De Rance Foundation in Wauwatosa, Wis., amounts to the largest grant awarded to the 203-student school in its 22-year history.
As soon as college officials received the grant in late December, they used it to pay off the balance of a $3-million loan that the foundation made to the school in 1985.
The grant will save the school from making the annual loan repayments, which ranged from $280,000 to $320,000, that had been scheduled to continue for another eight years, said John Blewett, the college’s vice president of finance.
In addition to the grant, the foundation had previously made gifts to the college totaling $1.5 million.
The foundation was established in 1946 by the late Harry G. John, heir to the Miller Brewing Co. fortune.
The foundation’s board decided in December to liquidate the charity’s $100 million in assets, leading to the gift to the College.
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