David R Atkinson

Mr. Atkinson retired in 1992 as a partner with Miller, Anderson & Sherrerd, a Philadelphia money-management firm. He now runs Atkinson & Company, the couple’s private-investment business. Mr. Atkinson, 72, and his wife, Patricia pledged $80-million to Cornell University, in Ithaca, N.Y., to support the David R. Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future, a research center focused on the challenges facing energy, the environment, and economic development around the world. Mr. Atkinson earned a bachelor’s degree in 1960 from Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Mr. Atkinson grew up near New Egypt, N.J., on a poultry farm that his father, who had only a ninth-grade education, ran successfully. The donor said he believes a “productive, efficient agricultural sector is a key ingredient for economic development.”