USC trustee Verna B. Dauterive ME ’49, EdD ’66 has committed her $30 million gift to name the first interdisciplinary social sciences building on the USC campus.

Verna and Peter Dauterive Hall will serve as a center for research and teaching for the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and for USC’s professional schools.

With graceful arches – offset in places by Gothic flourishes – the six-story structure will evoke the dignified feel of USC’s most beloved buildings. The groundbreaking is expected to take place in the fall.

“This structure will forever stand in testament to Verna’s visionary philanthropy, as well as her long-standing dedication, along with that of her late husband, to the university and its mission to educate the leaders of the future and produce scholarly work that will change the world,” said USC president C. L. Max Nikias.

Dauterive made the gift, first announced in 2008, in memory of her husband, Peter W. Dauterive ’49, a graduate of the USC Marshall School of Business. Dauterive rose to the position of executive vice president and managing officer at the Broadway Federal Savings and Loan Association and ultimately became the founding president and CEO of Founders Savings and Loan Association.

Verna Dauterive, who received her master’s and doctoral degrees from the USC Rossier School of Education, had a 62-year career with the Los Angeles Unified School District, where she served as a teacher, superintendent’s coordinator of integration programs, administrator of university relations and principal.

The Dauterives met as students in Doheny Memorial Library and maintained strong lifelong ties with the university. Verna Dauterive was one of a small group of alumni who formed the nucleus of the USC Black Alumni Association, and her husband was its first significant donor. The couple created the first major endowed scholarship at USC Rossier to attract meritorious black students who could pursue doctoral studies in education.

Verna Dauterive also held a faculty position at USC Rossier. As the first woman president of the school’s EduCare Support group, she conducted a study in Europe on the feasibility of expanding USC’s international programs in administration, teacher training and counseling. She set up fundraising chapters abroad for EduCare and taught classes for USC in Germany and Spain.

Former Gov. Pete Wilson appointed her to the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, and former Gov. George Deukmejian appointed her to the California Commission on the Status of Women.

In past years, the Dauterives also have provided financial support to the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, the USC Marshall School of Business and the USC School of Theatre.

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