For ‘an enduring gift’

Michael Miller

UC Irvine renamed its Graduate School of Management after

philanthropist Paul Merage on Tuesday, following an unprecedented

$30-million gift from the Chef America founder.

At a luncheon in the Irvine Barclay Theatre, UC Irvine chancellor

Ralph Cicerone and Graduate School of Management dean Andrew Policano

officially announced the establishment of the Paul Merage School of

Business. Merage, 61, directed his gift toward the creation of five

endowed chairs, fellowships and research in the management school.

“Today, it’s a special privilege and very humbling to accept this

gift from Paul and his family,” Cicerone told the crowd of about 100

at the luncheon. “This is the name we want associated with our

business school, and we could not be grateful enough.”

Merage, born in Iran, immigrated to the United States in the early

1960s and later earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from UC

Berkeley. In his remarks to the crowd, he paid tribute to his history

in the UC system.

“Once upon a time, the University of California gave me an

enduring gift -- an excellent education,” he said. “It has lasted my

whole life.”

Of the renaming, Merage said, “Today is really a very special day,

not only for [my wife] Lilly and I, but our entire family, because

this is the day we become one with the larger UCI family.”

Also speaking at the event were Charles Martin, co-chair of the

Graduate School of Management, and Kristen Monson, a 1986 graduate of the school. Martin, in his remarks, paid tribute to Merage’s savvy as

a businessman. Apart from founding Chef America in 1977, Merage also

helped to invent Belgian Chef Waffles and Hot Pockets snacks.

“What McDonald’s did for the food service industry, Chef America

did for the packaged food industry,” Martin said.

Merage’s $30-million gift is the largest single endowment that UC

Irvine has yet received. The total exceeded separate donations of $20

million from Henry Samueli to the School of Engineering in 2000 and

Donald Bren to the School of Information and Computer Sciences in

2003.