September 1, 2006
University of Miami Receives $2 Million Gift from Alumni Power Couple
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Dany Garcia Johnson gift to name new Alumni Center living room
CORAL GABLES, FL (September 5, 2006) – They met on campus, and now, their gift will help warmly welcome their fellow alumni visiting the University of Miami. Dwayne Johnson, A.B. ’95, the actor and former wrestler also known as “The Rock”, and his wife, Dany Garcia Johnson, B.B.A. ’92, founder of the Miami-based wealth management firm JDM Partners and a member of the UM Board of Trustees, have given $2 million to the University of Miami to name the living room of the much-anticipated Robert and Judi Prokop Newman Alumni Center.
The gift will be formally announced next week at the Miami premiere of the film “The Gridiron Gang,” in which The Rock stars as a football coach who uses the game to teach discipline at a juvenile prison, and is based on a true story.
The donation will name The Dany and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson Living Room, which will be a regal space with 26-foot ceilings, stone floors, comfortable furnishings and a fireplace, a real showcase for alumni returning to campus. It will be the heart of the Robert and Judi Prokop Newman Alumni Center, the “home away from home” for more than 143,000 UM alumni. The over 70,000-square-foot Newman Center will house a library, gallery, café, spacious meeting areas, a landscaped courtyard, and cases of memorabilia of the good times at the University of Miami.
“This generous gift will help make the Alumni Center the core of activities, the place where people start and finish their business on campus,” said Donna Arbide, Associate Vice President of Alumni Relations.
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The University of Miami is the largest private research institution in the southeastern United States. The University’s mission is to provide quality education, attract and retain outstanding students, support the faculty and their research, and build an endowment for University initiatives. www.miami.edu
Media Contact:
Margot Winick
mwinick@miami.edu
305-284-5500
