Lee and Penny Anderson have made a gift of $60 million to support construction of the Anderson Student Center and to build new athletic and recreational facilities at the University of St. Thomas. The gift is believed to be the largest single contribution to a university in Minnesota.
Lee Anderson is owner and chairman of APi Group Inc., a St. Paul-based holding corporation of about 30 construction, manufacturing and fire protection companies. Penny Anderson, a longtime community volunteer, serves as a trustee on the boards of the Naples Children’s and Education Foundation and the Naples Winter Wine Festival, both in Florida. The Andersons have two adult children and six grandchildren.
"Penny and I have come to love the University of St. Thomas," Lee Anderson said. "Its mission, sense of spirituality, traditions and most of all its faculty, administration, fellow trustees and students have caused us to think about what we wanted to leave as our legacy to higher education in Minnesota. We especially have been influenced by the character of the students."
"When we were presented with the opportunity to help with the building of the new student center and athletic facilities, we knew immediately that was what we wanted to do. We believe this improvement in facilities will help the university to continue to attract bright, committed students for many generations. Our hope and belief is that it will help build and strengthen the sense of community among students on campus."
Lee Anderson was elected to the St. Thomas Board of Trustees in 2000, and serves on its Audit/Finance and Investment committees. He also is a member of the St. Thomas School of Law Board of Governors.
He received the John F. Cade Award for entrepreneurial excellence from the John M. Morrison Center for Entrepreneurship at St. Thomas in 2002. He and his wife have established an endowment to provide scholarships for St. Thomas students from Cuba and other Caribbean nations.
Lee Anderson is a 1961 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., where he earned a degree in civil engineering. After several years in the armed services, he returned to the Twin Cities to work in the family business.
He started as a sales representative at Asbestos Products, which sold insulating material to the building trades and had 13 employees and a net worth of $60,000. He acquired other businesses over the next four decades, and today APi is one of the 500 largest privately held companies in the United States, with 5,000 permanent employees and $900 million in annual revenues.
In a 2002 interview in St. Thomas magazine, Anderson credited his late father for instilling high standards, an unflagging work ethic and self-confidence.
"Good things can happen, but you have to have faith in your ability to take a chance," he said. "A lot of people say, 'Hey, I thought of doing that,' but they didn’t act. I do, or at least I try."
Read more of the Anderson interview in St. Thomas magazine.