David DeLaCour Leaves Transformational $3.5M Gift to Scripps

Scripps Oceanography and Birch Aquarium at Scripps receive $1.75 million each from DeLaCour estate

Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego and Birch Aquarium at Scripps are the benefactors of a generous $3.5 million planned gift from the estate of the late David DeLaCour. This gift is considered one of the largest ever received by Scripps Institution of Oceanography and will help ensure the future excellence of the institution for many years ahead. Both Scripps and Birch will each receive $1.75 million and will use the unrestricted funds for priority projects and emerging opportunities.

David DeLaCour's relationship with Scripps began in 1997 when he phoned the Scripps Development Office and expressed an interest in preserving the ocean and its inhabitants, in part because of his love of fishing. The phone call was followed by a visit to the Scripps campus and Birch Aquarium at Scripps where DeLaCour learned more about the institution's breadth. DelaCour was enthralled, and soon after, informed the Scripps Development Office of his intentions to include charitable gifts to Scripps Oceanography and Birch Aquarium in his will.

In the years since that first 1997 visit, DeLaCour visited campus every summer, fished with Scripps development officer John Steinitz, lunched with development officer Lawrance Bailey for updates about Scripps, and toured Birch Aquarium. In 2008, he “adopted” a sea bass and leopard sharks through the aquarium’s Adopt-A-Fish program, an expression of his fascination with sharks and his passion for fishing. Steinitz also took DeLaCour shark tagging with Scripps scientists and to visit Scripps research projects in the Gulf of California. During several visits to the Reno, NV, area, both Steinitz and Bailey visited DeLaCour at his home to update him on Scripps projects.

DeLaCour passed away unexpectedly on November 21, 2010. His relationship with Scripps and the joy he took in providing for its future is a story of friendship and shared passions -- spanning more than a decade, involving many people, and enduring long after the retirement of the initiating development officer. DeLaCour's extraordinary generosity has left a lasting legacy for Scripps -- today, and far into the future.

Gifts to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography have the power to transform the world. To learn more about creating a planned gift to support Scripps, please contact the Scripps Development Office at 858-822-1865 or supportscripps@ucsd.edu.