Alum gives U. of C. healthy donation

The man who brought you Healthy Choice meals after he suffered a heart attack is giving the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business one of the largest cash gifts in the school's history, the university announced Friday.

Charles M. "Mike" Harper, 79, who earned his MBA at the school before going on to a career that led him to the top job at ConAgra Foods Inc. and later at RJR Nabisco Inc., is giving to the school an undisclosed sum, but one certainly totaling millions of dollars.

"I have discovered that giving money away is harder than making money," Harper said Friday. "Your natural inclination is to not give it away."

In recognition of the gift, the graduate business school building at 5807 S. Woodlawn Ave. at the Hyde Park campus will be known as the Charles M. Harper Center.

So how much did Harper give?

"You know I am not going to tell you that," Harper said, laughing. "That is an invitation for other people" to ask for money.

The graduate school offered a hint.

"Previous large gifts to the school include $25 million from Dennis Keller, chairman of DeVry Inc. ... and $20 million, from Robert Rothman, chairman and chief executive of Florida Bank Group," the school said in a statement.

Harper, a resident of Omaha, earned his MBA from the school in 1950. "The most important thing I learned was the power of markets," he said.

Harper joined ConAgra in 1974 as chief operating officer and later became chief executive officer, retiring in 1992.

Under his leadership, ConAgra went from $600 million in annual sales to more than $20 billion. In 1993 he was tapped to lead RJR Nabisco, where he helped clean up the finances of the heavily indebted company. He retired in 1996, saying he needed to spend more time with his wife, Josie, who was suffering with cancer.

Harper, who suffered a heart attack in the 1980s, credits her for what turned into a very successful food brand.

"She said that you are no longer going to live to eat, you are going to eat to live."

One day he and another ConAgra executive, dining on her low-sodium but spicy turkey chili, were surprised how tasty healthy food could be.

Healthy Choice was born in 1988.

"It had to taste damn good," Harper said. "The only reason people buy things is because they taste damn good."

"We got $1 billion in sales in three years," he said of the highly successful rollout of a new brand.

Edward Snyder, dean of the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, has some specific plans for Harper's gift to the school's endowment.

"It's going to be used to support people and programs," Snyder said.

Snyder said that it will allow the school to continue to increase its scholarship assistance, currently $5.8 million a year, and will allow the school to add 12 to 15 new faculty members to its existing roster of about 130 faculty.

Snyder isn't just a donor to his alma mater. He is a recruiter.

Jason Starr grew up around the corner from Snyder's Omaha home, and as a youngster used to play tennis on Snyder's backyard court.

"He would always ask where I was going to school," Starr said. "He said if you ever go for your MBA, you should go to the University of Chicago.

"When a Fortune 500 CEO says that, you take it to heart," Starr observed. He will be awarded his MBA from the school next month.
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rmanor@tribune.com