Annenberg Foundation Shifts its Base

They funded the program through five-year contracts until 1993, when they made the breathtaking $120 million endowment donation, which still is the largest gift in Penn's history. That gift provided permanent funding for the communications school and created the Annenberg Public Policy Center, the only major policy center focused on communications in the country.

In 2002, Mrs. Annenberg made an additional $100 million gift to the school and center to protect it during the economic downturn after 9/11.

The couple also endowed 24 professorships in nursing, medicine, the arts, and other areas, and multiple student scholarships.

University officials said they understood that her death might end such grand-scale giving by the Annenberg family.

"We never counted on that level of giving continuing," Penn president Amy Gutmann said. "We were blessed by the fact she gave until the very end of her incredibly long and productive life. So the loss is really the loss of Lee, more than anything else."