John Petersen | Benefactor to Pitt, 86

John Petersen, 86, a retired insurance executive whose gifts to the University of Pittsburgh included $10 million for a basketball arena named for himself and his wife, has died.

Mr. Petersen died Saturday after battling cancer, university officials and his family said. He and his wife, Gertrude, were living with their daughter in Savannah, Ga., at the time.

Chancellor emeritus Mark Nordenberg said the gift that helped fund the $119 million John M. and Gertrude E. Petersen Events Center also helped invigorate the campus and was a magnet for other donations. It opened in 2002.

"You can't really say that there was a cause and effect, but there was a general change in the feeling of the institution that I think did have a role in the generation of that progress," Nordenberg told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Mr. Petersen and his wife also donated money for scholarships, a nanoscience and engineering institute, and an Olympic sports complex at the school. And his daughter, Joan Chalikian, of Savannah, said her father believed in giving back to communities where he lived and worked and, generally, investing in people.

Funeral arrangements were pending, but a service was expected Saturday in Erie.

- AP