When it comes to education, research, and service, UCLA is one of Los Angeles’s — and the world’s — great resources. No surprise, then, that the university has multiple programs in place to help save and sustain the world’s natural resources, including far-reaching endeavors in UCLA College.
Demonstrating his passion for the environment and the university, loyal alumnus Morton La Kretz ’48 recently gave $20 million to UCLA College to renovate the campus’s historic botany building. The upgrade preserves physical and philanthropic continuity with La Kretz’s previous gifts. When updated, the La Kretz Botany Building will feature a new main entrance and lobby, remodeled labs for botanical teaching and conservation research, and classrooms updated with advanced instructional technology. A second entrance will be accessible from UCLA’s Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden, a university treasure that has benefitted from La Kretz’s generosity.
La Kretz’s tremendous commitment to conservation is improving understanding of the natural world, educating future stewards of the environment, and preserving environmental resources on campus and beyond. Other beneficiaries of his forward-thinking philanthropy include UCLA Institute for the Environment and Sustainability and La Kretz Center for California Conservation Science. To recognize his influence at UCLA and throughout Los Angeles, the university awarded La Kretz the UCLA Medal at a ceremony on October 24.
La Kretz’s generosity has broad reach. He has made his mark in places from the Arts District — home to Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator’s La Kretz Innovation Campus — to Beverly Hills’ Coldwater Canyon Park, where nonprofit TreePeople educates children at La Kretz Watershed Garden. His generosity is an invaluable resource cultivating invaluable resources.