PairGain Chairman Pledges $2 Million to Vermont College

Lest it seem that executives from chip makers Broadcom Corp. and Conexant Systems Inc. are the only wealthy techies in Orange County with an interest in education, PairGain Technologies Inc.’s Chairman Charles S. Strauch and his wife, Nan, have pledged $2 million to Landmark College in Putney, Vt.

PairGain, located in Tustin, designs and manufactures networking systems for digital subscriber lines.

Strauch was a founding trustee of Landmark College in 1984 and became chairman of the school’s board of trustees 10 years later. It is the only fully accredited college in the country dedicated exclusively to serving the needs of students with learning disabilities and attention disorders.

The Strauchs previously donated more than $2.6 million to Landmark, the school said.

Broadcom co-Chairman Henry Samueli and Conexant Chairman Dwight Decker will make a shared donation of $5 million to $10 million to UC Irvine’s school of engineering June 19. The UCI and UCLA engineering schools were named for Samueli after he donated $20 million and $30 million, respectively, to the schools last year.

Karen Alexander covers high technology for The Times. She can be reached at (714) 966-5637 or at karen.alexander@latimes.com.