Ken Griffin Gives $125M to University of Chicago

A flood of money is pouring into the state’s top schools as the University of Chicago and University of Illinois have landed some of their largest-ever single donations within a week of each other.

Ken Griffin, the richest man in Illinois, committed $125 million to U. of C.’s economics department, university leaders will announce Wednesday. It is the second-largest gift in the university’s history, officials said, behind the $300 million from David G. Booth to the business school in 2008.

Last week, Larry and Beth Gies gave $150 million to Urbana-Champaign’s business school, which will be renamed in their honor. That is biggest gift in the university’s history.

And those gifts, coming amid a sustained economic expansion and as equities markets set records seemingly every day, are just the latest in what has become a cascade of private money for top universities.