

Tashia and John Morgridge received recognition on Friday from University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank for their record-breaking gift. Photo: Jeff Miller/UW-Madison.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison has received a $100 million donation, the largest single contribution in the university's history.

The gift from John and Tashia Morgridge will be used to encourage matching gifts from other donors, and will pay for professorships and department chairs at the school.

John Morgridge, who graduated from the Wisconsin School of Business in 1955, has served as president, CEO and chairman of the board of Cisco Systems. Morgridge said the share of funding the UW receives from the government has decreased sharply since he and his wife went to school, and that was part of the reason they felt compelled to give.

“We felt that it was critical to maintain the quality of the professors here, and so this came quite naturally to us,” said Morgridge.

The Morgridges have made other major contributions in Wisconsin, including $100 million for a research center at Wisconsin Institute for Discovery and $188 million for grants to low-income students attending Wisconsin's public colleges or universities.