The president of the University Board of Trustees and his wife have donated a $5 million life insurance policy to Penn State which will endow chairs in three colleges and the library.

J. Lloyd and Dorothy Foehr Huck named the University owner and beneficiary of the policy on which the Hucks will pay annual premiums, University President Bryce Jordan announced at the trustee's Saturday meeting.

The donation will fund the first endowed faculty chair in University Libraries and endow chairs in the colleges of Medicine, Science and Health and Human Development, Jordan said.

The remainder of the funds will provide graduate fellowships for students in all disciplines, but particularly in the humanities, liberal arts, and fine and performing arts, he said.

J. Lloyd Huck, the chairman of Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Co. and the Nova Pharmaceutical Co., said although Penn State has no tradition of donating insurance policies, it is commonly done at other institutions.

The board president said he hopes more people follow his lead and donate insurance proceeds to the University.

"If anything happens, the gift is automatically worth $5 million," J. Lloyd Huck said. And it allows the donor to contribute a set amount each year, he added.

"It's a very controlled way to make a gift," he said.

The Hucks, 1943 graduates of the University, donated $2 million to the Campaign for Penn State in 1988. Half of that donation went into the building fund of the Biotechnology Institute. The donation also created a chair in the medical college and an acquisition fund for the University libraries.

The four chairs designated by the Hucks have specific purposes, Jordan said.

-- The holder of the J. Lloyd Huck Chair in Molecular and Cell Biology will direct the discipline's graduate program and a research facility at the University's Hershey Medical Center.

-- The Dorothy Foehr Huck Chair in Nutrition will focus on researching the connections of diet, disease and healthy living.

-- The J. Lloyd Huck Chair in Natural Sciences will be held by a researcher who contributes to the understanding of life processes.

-- The Dorothy Foehr Huck Chair for Special Collections will be dedicated to attaining and maintaining these collections in the University libraries.