By Cliff Peale
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Carl and Martha Lindner's daughter Blake is a senior art history major at the University of Virginia, and the Indian Hill couple is giving the university a heck of a graduation present.

The Lindners, son and daughter-in-law of Reds owner Carl Lindner Jr., will give $2.8 million to create a permanent endowment in the university's McIntire Department of Art. The area of the Charlottesville, Va., campus occupied by the art history department will be named the Carl H. and Martha S. Lindner Center for Art History.

Carl Lindner III called the department "a national gem that deserves attention." He said the teaching his daughter received was a key to the gift.

"The first couple of years, it was tough for her," he said in an interview. "She was trying to find her niche. The art history professors really took her under their wing, and she just blossomed.

"We saw how our daughter thrived there, and we just decided to get involved in a more long-lasting way."

Blake Lindner worked in a White House internship program last summer and fall.

Virginia will use the Lindner money to support graduate and undergraduate study, increase the use of digital technology, bring in more visiting scholars, and send students overseas for travel fellowships.

University President John Casteen said the endowment will help fulfill the goals of its long-range plan, called Virginia 2020.

"We are grateful for what this gift provides and what it represents," he said in the U.Va. statement.

E-mail cpeale@enquirer.com