Stories

You can see evidence of John A. and Susan Sobrato’s generosity throughout Santa Clara University.

A $100 million gift, which will help create the Sobrato Campus for Discovery and Innovation, is yet another investment by the Sobratos in the Mission Campus.

One of the first major gifts the Sobratos gave to SCU was in 1995. Their donation provided for landscaping around the perimeter of the campus.

The $15.6 million, four-story Sobrato Residence Hall, completed in 2000, marked the Sobratos’ next major gift. The hall houses the Loyola Residential Learning Community and some 270 students. True to the Jesuit principle of educating the whole person—heart, mind, and spirit—Loyola offers an innovative program integrating courses, community-based learning, and the role of religion and spirituality in modern life.

In 2005, the Sobrato family donated $8.6 million of real estate to the University for what is now Loyola Hall. The building is home to University Relations, including the offices of Development and Marketing and Communications.

The Sobrato family contributed $20 million in 2007 toward the technology center in the Harrington Learning Commons, Sobrato Technology Center, and Orradre Library, a 194,000-square-foot, four-story facility that serves as the intellectual heart of campus. “I was the first in my Italian immigrant family to go to college,” said John A. Sobrato ‘60. “My education was grounded in ethics and, by giving back to the community, I hope that students for generations to come will have an opportunity to learn just like my family and I did.”

Perhaps the most photographed spot in the University is from the top of the Abby Sobrato Mall, looking toward the fountain and the Mission Santa Clara de Asis. The pedestrian walkway is named in honor of the late Abby Sobrato ’83. She was wed to John M. Sobrato ’83 who, together with father John A., donated this beautiful entry in her memory in 2013.

“If you are successful in a particular business, you have an obligation to share some of that success with the communities where you were able to succeed,” says John A. Sobrato.