W M Keck Foundation

St. Francis Medical Center has received a $50,000 grant, which is its largest award ever from a private foundation. The donation, from the W. M. Keck Foundation of Los Angeles, will be used toward renovation and remodeling of the center's emergency department, said Terry Mohr, vice president of fund development. Renovation, which is expected to cost more than $200,000, is scheduled to start in July, Mohr said.

The W.M. Keck Foundation has awarded $500,000 over a five-year period to Caltech to support an outreach program for high school biology education. Forty high school biology teachers will attend a summer session of lectures and laboratory workshops designed to help them in their classrooms. Caltech estimates that 9,000 high school students will be served by the program at the end of five years.

Polytechnic School has received a $380,000 grant from the W. M. Keck Foundation to develop a mathematics curriculum for talented high school students. The curriculum will emphasize the use of computers and will be taught to math teachers from other schools. The school will also use grant funds to expand its Honors Math Institute, a program for public school students.

Lincoln Training Center, a work training facility for the developmentally disabled, has received a grant of $48,000 from the W. M. Keck Foundation. The money will be used for the center's independent living skills classes designed to teach such skills as understanding numbers, telling time, personal hygiene and recognizing money values. The center in South El Monte provides work training with pay for mentally retarded people from throughout the San Gabriel Valley.

The Biology Department at Cal State Long Beach has received a $150,000 grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation to help establish a molecular biology program. The university intends to use the grant to purchase equipment for a laboratory, which will be named the W.M. Keck Foundation Molecular and Cell Biology Laboratory. The university has hired molecular biology scientists Lisa Klig and Editte Gharakhanian for the program.

The Westside Center for Independent Living has received a $200,000 grant from the W. M. Keck Foundation to be used in work with the elderly and disabled. The center, 12901 Venice Blvd., serves West Los Angeles, West Hollywood and the beach cities from Malibu to the South Bay. Its counseling and educational programs are aimed at helping disabled people live on their own. The grant is one of five totaling $1.1 million that the foundation made to community agencies for 1987.

The Laguna Moulton Playhouse has received a $50,000 grant from the W. M. Keck Foundation of Los Angeles for its latest structural expansion. The grant will be used to build a 5,000-square-foot annex for rehearsal and technical facilities, said Vern Spitaleri, president of the theater's board of directors. A construction date on the annex has not been set. Laguna Moulton has already added a 68-seat balcony, larger lobby and new offices to the original 650-seat facility built in 1969.

Caltech has reported receiving a record $77.6 million in gifts during the past year, double the amount given to the college the previous year. The gifts include $21.5 million from the W. M. Keck Foundation for the W. M. Keck Observatory, $18.6 million from the estate of Liliore G. Rains, a Beverly Hills heiress, and $2.5 million from the Lucille P. Markey Trust for a new program in developmental biology.