$10-MILLION GIFT HELPS KICK OFF U.VA. CAPITAL CAMPAIGN 
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SAUNDERS GIFT PUTS DARDEN SCHOOL PAST ITS $45-MILLION GOAL

	CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Oct. 7 -- The Darden Graduate School
of Business Administration of the University of Virginia has become
the beneficiary of a $10-million trust, the largest single gift in
its 40-year history, from alumnus and trustee Thomas A. Saunders III
and his wife Jordan Horner Saunders.
	The Saunders gift, announced Saturday night at the kickoff
of the University's $750 million capital campaign, pushes the Darden
School's portion of the campaign over its initial $45 million goal. 
	SaundersŐ gift will establish an academic center for
executive education at Darden. This center will focus on new
curriculum models, case writing, innovative courses, potential
degree programs, and the latest technology in distant learning.  He
sees executive education as an essential part of Darden's long-range
vision and ongoing success.  "Commitment to excellence in executive
education will distinguish Darden and ensure its position among the
nationŐs top graduate business schools in the 21st century,"
Saunders said.
	Executive education programs were started in 1955 at Darden
and have been central to the school's mission ever since.  Annually,
the school now enrolls more than 2,500 executives from around the
world and hundreds of companies.  It was ranked No. 1 in Business
Week's Guide to the Best Executive Education Programs.   
	"We are excited and grateful for this generous gift, which
completes our original capital campaign goal and will aid immensely
in the continued enhancement of our executive education programs and
our pursuit of lifelong learning," said Leo I. Higdon Jr., dean of
the Darden School.  The $10-million gift is in addition to more than
$3 million in other gifts the Saunders made early in the Darden
Campaign and continues their support of the School, both financially
and in personal service.  In recognition of the SaundersŐ earlier
contributions, the School will dedicate Saunders Hall, the focal
point of the new Darden Grounds, in their honor. 
	 Like the Rotunda, this central building, with its soaring
octagonal forum, will be the heart of DardenŐs community life.  When
completed, DardenŐs new physical plant, unmatched by any business
school in the nation, makes a clear statement about the seriousness
with which Darden views its mission and the position of prominence
it will take among its peer institutions in decades to come.
	Thomas Saunders is the chairman of both the Darden School
Foundation Board of Trustees and the Campaign for Darden. Jordan
Saunders is a member of the executive committee of the Campaign for
the University of Virginia and chairman of the Dinner Committee,
which produced the Dinner on the Lawn to celebrate the launch of the
UniversityŐs campaign.
	Honored during his student days for contributions to the
school and promise of future achievements, Thomas Saunders graduated
in 1967 and embarked on a highly successful career in the investment
banking field.
	He is a founding partner of Saunders Karp & Co., a New
York-based merchant bank, which he launched after a 22-year career
at Morgan Stanley & Co.  Saunders Karp & Co. is a private equity
investor with a diversified portfolio of industrial, retail, and
financial services assets. The firm is a major investor in the
Dollar Tree Stores, a Virginia-based retail chain, that went public
earlier this year.
	While at Morgan Stanley, Saunders was a managing director
and served as chairman of the Morgan Stanley Leveraged Equity Fund,
the private equity arm of the firm.  He led the companyŐs efforts in
such complex transactions as the divestiture of the Bell System by
AT&T, the initial global privatization of British Telecom, and
Conrail, the only significant privatization in the United States.
While serving as the head of Morgan StanleyŐs public offering
activities, he managed several billion-dollar transactions.  
	Saunders is a member of the board of visitors of the
Virginia Military Institute, a trustee of Cold Spring Harbor
Laboratory, one of the leading molecular biology research centers in
the world, and president of the board of trustees of the Cathedral
of St. John the Divine. 
	 Jordan Saunders, in addition to her service for the
University's capital campaign, is a trustee and member of the
executive committee of the North Shore University Hospital and a
trustee of the Marine Corps Command and Staff College foundation.
	The Saunders are the parents of a son, Thomas, and a
daughter, Calvert, who received a bachelorŐs degree from the
University of Virginia in 1990.
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October 7, 1995