UF Receives $4.2 Million Gift For New Lepidoptera Center

January 5, 2001

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Butterflies by the millions will have a new place to call home at the University of Florida, thanks to a major gift to construct two new buildings for Lepidoptera research and public exhibits, university officials announced today (1/5).

William and Nadine McGuire of Wayzata, Minn., have given $4.2 million to the University of Florida for the facilities and to establish the William W. and Nadine M. McGuire Center for Lepidoptera Research. The gift is one of the largest private gifts ever given to foster research on insects and is eligible for an equal match from the state of Florida Alec Courtelis Facilities Enhancement Challenge Grant Program, which would bring the total amount of the gift to $8.4 million.

The facility, to be named McGuire Hall, will be attached to the existing Florida Museum of Natural History’s Powell Hall. The proposed 35,000-square-foot Lepidoptera center will be devoted principally to housing one of the world’s largest and most complete Lepidoptera collections and the associated research facilities for their study. It also will contain a public education and live butterfly exhibit. The center is projected to open in early 2003.

The McGuire’s gift also will allow for construction of a 6,000-square-foot building adjacent to UF’s entomology and nematology building. The new facility will be named the William W. and Nadine M. McGuire Center for Insect Conservation.

“Lepidoptera research is a vital area to the study of ailing ecosystems because butterflies are an indicator species for how the environment is faring as a whole,” said William McGuire. “The University of Florida and its multidisciplinary approach to research, coupled with the state of Florida’s commitment to the environment, made our choice to invest in the University of Florida an easy one.”

The Florida Museum of Natural History and UF’s departments of zoology and entomology have been seeking space to house a collection of more than 1 million butterflies currently kept in UF’s Allyn Museum of Entomology in Sarasota, Fla. Donated to the university in 1981 by businessman Arthur Allyn, the Sarasota facility reached capacity several years ago.

“The McGuire Center will help to bring one of the world’s finest assemblages of research materials together at the University of Florida to help answer fundamental questions in biology, where since Darwin’s day, butterflies and moths have been used to study evolutionary change, ecological questions, and even as models to research genetic and developmental problems in humans,” said Tom Emmel, zoology professor and director of UF’s Division of Lepidoptera Research. “The collections to be kept in the new facilities

will also preserve for study in perpetuity samples of biodiversity from the tropics and temperate regions worldwide that can never be gathered again, due to habitat destruction and environmental change.”

McGuire received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin and his medical degree from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. He is chairman and CEO of UnitedHealth Group. Nadine McGuire also is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin. The McGuires are long-time enthusiasts of Lepidoptera and environmental studies and have donated more than 30,000 butterflies to UF in the past.

The McGuire’s gift is part of the University of Florida’s five-year capital campaign, which ended on Dec. 31. The “It’s Performance That Counts” campaign raised private gifts for UF scholarships, faculty positions, facilities and technological enhancements to help the university produce top-quality performance in teaching and research. As of Nov. 30, the campaign had raised more than $789 million in private commitments and state matching support for the university. The final total for the campaign is expected to be announced next week.