University of Minnesota Receives $50 Million Gift for New Children's Hospital

"My hope is that the Amplatz Children's Hospital will follow in my father's footsteps with steadfast and unrelenting determination to improve and save lives," she said in a written statement. "I know that by embracing this history, the new pediatric hospital will be the best in the world."

The money covers half of the $100 million in philanthropic donations that leaders of the university and Fairview Health Services sought to build the $275 million hospital. The 96-bed facility on Fairview's Riverside campus in Minneapolis will open in 2011.