Less than 24 hours after losing out on a bid to purchase the Los Angeles Clippers, entertainment mogul David Geffen will receive UCLA’s highest honor, the UCLA Medal, at today’s (May 30) graduation ceremony at the university’s medical school, which bears his name.
Geffen, the creator of Asylum and Geffen Records and a co-founder of the film studio DreamWorks SKG, has been a longtime benefactor to UCLA, donating $10 million in 1995 toward UCLA’s Westwood Playhouse, now called the Geffen Playhouse.
In 2002, Geffen made a $200 million gift to UCLA’s medical school, the largest to a U.S. medical school.
In 2012, he established the $100-million merit-based David Geffen Medical Scholarships, which cover the cost of a medical education for nearly 20 percent of entering students to the David Geffen School of Medicine, allowing them to graduate debt-free.
The UCLA Medal was established in 1979 and is the highest honor for extraordinary accomplishment that may be bestowed on an individual by UCLA.
Previous recipients include former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, architect Frank Gehry, filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, and actress Carol Burnett.
