The largest single gift designated for scholarships in the history of Providence College has grown even larger.

Philip J. Whitcome, Ph.D. ’70 of Madison, Conn., who died on December 6, 2005, originally bequeathed a gift of $5.2 million to be added to the Whitcome Family Scholarship Fund, which he established in June 2001 for students majoring in the natural sciences.

Thanks to additional disbursements from his estate, more than $2.4 million has been added to that fund, which now benefits students in the natural sciences, mathematics, or computer science.

“As of August 16, the College has received a total of $7,640,000 through Dr. Whitcome’s will [toward the scholarship],” reported Joseph P. Brum ’68, special assistant to the president for development projects. “The scholarship bequest to the College is expected to continue to grow.”

Dr. Whitcome also bequeathed $134,947 for the Smith Center for the Arts building fund and $51,010 for the purchase of film editing equipment, which helped the College establish its new minor in film/video. Those gifts are in addition to his original bequest. He had previously sponsored a stained-glass window in St. Dominic Chapel in honor of his late wife, Carla Witson Whitcome.

Throughout, “Phil was humble and unassuming,” said Brum. “He went to school here at PC on a National Institutes for Health scholarship. That federally funded program ended a long time ago. He hoped his bequest would help the College replace some of those funds, which provided scholarships for outstanding students majoring in the sciences.”

A molecular biologist, entrepreneur, and philanthropist, Dr. Whitcome was a director and chairman of the board of Avigen, a San Francisco-based company he founded to develop gene-based therapeutic products for treating inherited and acquired diseases.

From 1988 to 1994, he was president and CEO of Neurogen Corporation, a pharmaceutical firm. He had served previously in strategic planning, research, and/or marketing management positions at major biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.

Dr. Whitcome, who earned his Ph.D. in molecular biology at UCLA and his M.B.A. at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, was also a private investor in start-up bio-tech companies.