It's not everybody's favorite spot on the USC campus, but to Verna B. Dauterive the basement of Doheny Memorial Library remains a beloved landmark where her life changed.
There, in 1947, she was doing homework for her master's degree in education when another student struck up a conversation. He was Peter W. Dauterive, a former soldier who was getting his business degree on a GI Bill and one of the few fellow African American students at USC in those days. Both were recent arrivals from segregated Louisiana looking for better opportunities in Los Angeles.
"It was good chemistry, and that started everything," recalled Verna Dauterive, 85, who retired just three years ago after a long career as a Los Angeles school administrator.
That "everything" included a long marriage to a man who became a prominent banker and their shared devotion to the campus where they met. Now, Verna Dauterive is giving $25 million to USC in the memory of her husband, who died in 2002.
" 'SC has a great light on this earth and that light has been very bright on our pathways and our careers," she said. "It was very meaningful to both my husband and me because it had the greatest influence on our careers and life in general."
USC officials say the gift appears to be the largest single donation from an African American to a U.S. college or university, although Bill and Camille Cosby's $20 million donation in 1987 to Spelman College in Atlanta may have been worth more when adjusted for inflation. The Dauterive donation is in the top dozen for USC; the biggest was a $175-million gift from George Lucas and his Lucasfilm foundation to the cinema school.
University President Steven B. Sample will formally announce the gift tonight at a USC Black Alumni Assn. dinner.
A portion of the Dauterive donation will fund scholarships, and the rest is under negotiation.
"It's going to allow more students to attend 'SC, perhaps provide more diversity at 'SC, and I'm hoping it will encourage African American alumni who have profited from their degrees at 'SC and are doing well in life but have not contributed what they can afford to contribute," she said.
Dauterive (pronounced Doe-TREEVE) is a slim, elegant woman who looks much younger than she is. Smartly dressed in a coral-colored suit with a pearl necklace and a USC lapel pin, she sat for an interview on USC's campus and spoke softly but with the precision and authority of a veteran educator.
