A multi-generational commitment to science

If there’s a gene linked with generosity, it must be intrinsic to the DNA of the Skaggs family. Members of three generations have contributed their skills and their money to supporting the life-changing work of Scripps Research.

Noted businessman and benefactor L.S. “Sam” Skaggs initiated the relationship. Having identified education and pharmaceutical research as two of his philanthropic priorities, he and his wife, Aline, made numerous generous gifts to the institute during their lifetimes. A $100 million donation in 1996 created The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology.

In subsequent years, the Skaggs children adopted their parents’ mission as one of their own. Mark Skaggs and Claudia Skaggs Luttrell served on the Board of Directors, with Luttrell assuming an additional leadership role in several institute programs. In 2018, they joined their siblings, Don and Susie, in making a transformational lead gift from their family’s foundations toward the institute’s endowment campaign for its nationally ranked graduate program. In recognition of this gift and the family’s lifelong support of education, the program has been renamed the Skaggs Graduate School of Chemical and Biological Sciences.

Adding a third generation to the history of Skaggs family philanthropy, Luttrell’s adult children, Dallas Luttrell and Jennifer Luttrell Benardoni, have made individual donations to the endowment campaign. A multigenerational commitment to supporting science is rare and therefore very much appreciated.

Scripps Research is honored to include the Skaggs family among its most ardent benefactors.