Batten Sr. gives up to $70M to Indiana military academy

Frank Batten Sr., the retired chairman of Landmark Media Enterprises LLC, and his wife, Jane, have made a gift of up to $70 million to Culver Academies, the military boarding school he attended in Indiana.

The gift consists of $20 million for faculty salaries and a challenge that will match other gifts up to $50 million, the school announced Wednesday.

Culver, 100 miles north of Indianapolis, has nearly 800 students in grades 9 to 12 in two schools – a military school and a girls academy – according to its Web site. Batten, 81, who grew up in Norfolk, graduated from Culver in 1945.

“Culver was a very positive influence in my life at an impressionable age with its unique emphasis on individual responsibility, ethical decision-making and student leadership,” he said in a statement.

John Buxton, Culver’s head of schools, said the donation “may be the most generous gift for faculty salaries in the history of secondary school philanthropy.”

Batten, who lives in Virginia Beach, donated $21 million to Culver in 2003.

In October, Batten gave $20 million to help develop a new main library near the Seaboard Building in downtown Norfolk.

His contributions have been primarily to educational causes. Last year, he donated $100 million to the University of Virginia to begin the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy.

Other recipients of multi-million-dollar gifts from Batten have included the College of William and Mary, Harvard University, Old Dominion University, Virginia Wesleyan College and ACCESS College Foundation, a local nonprofit organization that helps students find aid to attend college.

Landmark, based in Norfolk, publishes The Virginian-Pilot.

Philip Walzer, (757) 222-3864, phil.walzer@pilotonline.com