<p>From Mercury News, March 2</p>
<p>A Hillsborough woman has given her alma mater, Pomona College, a $10 million gift, the largest single contribution from a living donor in the school’s 117-year history.</p>
<p>Lillian Lincoln Howell, 84, donated the money, which the Claremont liberal arts college will use to build two buildings with nearly 100,000 square feet of classrooms, laboratories and faculty offices for several areas of study.</p>
<p>Howell, a 1943 graduate, had studied science and philosophy at the school. She worked as a nursery school teacher, married and raised a son. In 1976, she became the first woman to start a television station in a top-10 market. San Francisco-based KTSF (Ch. 26) became one of the nation’s first multiethnic broadcasters.</p>
<p><code>I wanted to serve the unserved,‘’ she said Monday.</code>There was some Spanish programming, and nothing else except for English.‘’</p>
<p>KTSF began carrying programs in Mandarin and Cantonese and now airs programs in 12 languages, with a reported 1.4 million viewers.</p>
<p>Howell’s father was John C. Lincoln, who grew up as the son of a minister but after working a bit after college, he founded Lincoln Electric in Cleveland. The company became one the nation’s leading manufacturers of welding materials.</p>
<p>When his wife developed tuberculosis, Lincoln moved his family to Arizona. He listened to a man who came to him in 1936 with an idea for a resort near Scottsdale and became the major investor in the Camelback Inn. The inn’s legendary desert views, adobe architecture and top-notch service attracted presidents and Hollywood stars as guests.</p>
<p>Howell said Pomona was a wonderful school, and being there <code>was one of the nicest experiences in my life.‘’ The school needed new buildings, she said.</code>I really feel happy about this contribution.‘’</p>
<p><code>These new buildings will be home to a number of exciting fields, many of them disciplines that cut across traditional academic boundaries in innovative ways,‘’ said Pomona’s president, David Oxtoby.</code>We are deeply grateful to Lillian Howell for her farsighted generosity.‘’</p>
