NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

A $350 million gift pledged to Harvard University’s School of Public Health is the largest single donation in the university’s long history, officials said, and will help bolster research in several key areas including global pandemics.

The donation, to be formally announced Monday, comes from a philanthropic foundation established by the family of T.H. Chan, a Hong Kong real estate developer who died in 1986.

In a rarity for Harvard, the school will be renamed the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The only other school within the university to bear an individual’s name is the Harvard Kennedy School, named for John F. Kennedy.

“I think he would have been very pleased … that the school would be part of his legacy,” said Dr. Gerald Chan, describing his father as a staunch supporter of education who often helped family friends pay for schooling or study abroad.