Pa. university gets $1.5M gift from late lawmaker

READING, Pa. (AP) — An eastern Pennsylvania university has received a gift of more than $1.5 million from the estate of a longtime lawmaker.

The donation from the late state Sen. Michael O’Pake is the largest in the history of Alvernia University in Reading.

Alvernia officials announced today that the funds will be used to establish the O’Pake Institute of Ethics, Leadership, and Public Service.

A Reading native, O’Pake was 70 when he died in December of complications from heart bypass surgery. He had been Pennsylvania’s longest-serving legislator, with more than four decades in the state House and Senate.

Officials expect the leadership institute to open next year. The university already has the O’Pake Science Center.