A $2 million gift made to the College of Medicine and the College of Design, Construction and Planning at the University of Florida will help construct buildings, mend hearts and reduce pediatric diabetes.

William G. Lassiter, Jr. and his wife Aneice of West Palm Beach, Fla. have given $1 million to UF’s M.E. Rinker Sr., School of Building Construction and $1 million to UF’s College of Medicine Department of Pediatrics.

. “My wife wanted to do something for kids, so we decided to give to the department of pediatrics,” said William Lassiter, alumnus of the building construction program at UF and director of W.G. Lassiter Properties, Inc. a major real estate development company in Palm Beach. “And I wanted to put back something into the university that would help a lot of young people in building construction.”

Lassiter, who graduated from UF in 1951, is also the president of Palm Beach Development Corp. and Legal Leasing Corporation and director of Gardens Park Plaza, Inc. and the Beltub Park Property Owners Association, Inc.

The gift to the School of Building Construction in the College of Design, Construction and Planning will endow the William G. Lassiter, Jr. and Aneice R. Lassiter professorship in building construction. The funds will provide spendable income to be used to support a professorship in the school.

The Lassiters also gave $600,000 to endow the William G. Lassiter, Jr. and Aneice R. Lassiter professorship in the department of pediatrics to support a professorship with an emphasis on congenital heart disease, and $400,000 to endow the William G. Lassiter, Jr. and Aneice R. Lassiter Pediatric Diabetes Research Fund.

“We want young men and women to further their education, graduate and go on to make good careers,” said Lassiter. “We also wish that our gift will help provide funds for someone to discover a cure for congenital heart disease or take pediatric diabetes research to another level.”