Fresno businessman and philanthropist Pete P. Peters was honored as the Henry Madden Library “Donor of the Year” at a reception Jan. 29 in the library at California State University, Fresno.
His latest gift of $100,000, made through the Pete P. Peters Foundation, supports gallery space in the balcony area of the Leon S. Peters Ellipse Gallery at the library. The area now is the Pete P. Peters Ellipse Balcony Gallery and will present student and faculty exhibitions.
In 2008, Peters was awarded an honorary doctoral degree — the California State University’s highest commendation — for his unwavering commitment to bettering the region and his substantial and longtime support of Fresno State.
“Pete P. Peters is one of the great visionaries of Central California,” said Fresno State President John D. Welty. “At Fresno State and elsewhere, Mr. Peters has helped our region in many ways.”
“Pete P. Peters is one of the great visionaries of Central California,” said Fresno State President John D. Welty. “At Fresno State and elsewhere, Mr. Peters has helped our region in many ways.”
He has been instrumental in directing additional significant gifts to Fresno State from the Leon S. Peters Foundation, established by his late brother, also an industrialist and philanthropist. The Leon S. Peters Ellipse Gallery is named in gratitude for a $500,000 gift from the Leon S. Peters Foundation .
The gift will support exhibitions, academic tools for student success and acquisition of collections, including the Web of Science, an online academic database providing access to more than 10,000 academic journals and over 100,000 book-based and journal conference proceedings.
The Leon S. Peters Foundation provided a $50,000 gift to advance the Leon S. Peters Papers Project, a research collection of Peters’ business and personal papers. The collection will also house video interviews and nomination papers of winners of the prestigious Leon S. Peters Award recognizing exemplary business leadership in the service of community improvement.
Another $20,000 gift from the Leon S. Peters Foundation will fund a year’s worth of activities for an Ethics Center, including speakers, release time for a faculty ethics fellow, a research award and an ethics essay contest for students.
