Munger Pledges $110 Million to the University of Michigan

Charles T. Munger, the vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and longtime business partner of Warren E. Buffett, has made a $110 million gift to the University of Michigan, the largest donation in the school’s history, the university said in a statement Thursday.

The gift, which will be given in stock, will fund a graduate student residence on the school’s Ann Arbor campus. It also will include $10 million for fellowships for students at the university. Mr. Munger, 89, earned his undergraduate degree from the school.

Improving graduate-school housing has been a focus of Mr. Munger’s philanthropy. In 2004, he and his wife, Nancy, donated $43.5 million to Stanford University for the construction of a graduate resident that houses law, business and other students seeking advanced degrees. (Mr. Munger did not attend Stanford, but numerous family members have.)

In 2011, Mr. Munger gave $20 million to renovate the living spaces at the University of Michigan Law School. He has also provided generous financial support to several prep schools in his Los Angeles, where he resides, including the Munger Science Center at the Harvard-Westlake School and a Munger Hall at the Marlborough School.

In an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday, Mr. Munger said that driving these gifts in the desire to see graduate students across disciplines work together and exchange ideas. “Specialization causes a lot of bad thinking,” he told the A.P.

Mary Sue Coleman, the president of the University of Michigan, said, “Most universities do not take a community-like approach, and this project envisions an approach that makes graduate study less isolated.”

Michigan, while a public university, has seen several large gifts from billionaires and their families. Earlier this year, the school announced that Helen Zell, the wife of the real estate magnate Sam Zell, was donating $50 million in support of the school’s graduate writing program. And Mr. Munger’s gift eclipses the $100 donation made to the university’s business school in 2004 by Stephen A. Ross, another real estate tycoon who serves as chairman of Related Companies.

Like Mr. Buffett, Mr. Munger is a native of Omaha, Neb. He earned a law degree at Harvard and started the Los Angeles firm Munger, Tolles & Olson. He left the practice of law to focus on investing, and became vice chairman of Berkshire in 1978.

Next month in Omaha, Mr. Munger will appear on stage alongside Mr. Buffett at the annual conference for Berkshire shareholders. Last year, the two discussed Mr. Buffett’s support for raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans to close the budget gap. His partner’s position,  Mr. Munger said, “has reduced my popularity around the country club.”