Frank McCourt gives $100 million to Georgetown University

The owner of the Dodger Stadium parking lots — and former owner of the team — is making the largest donation ever to Georgetown, his alma mater and the nation’s oldest Catholic university. The gift will be used to found a school of public policy that will bear his family name, the Washington Post reports. McCourt, his father, two of his brothers and one of his sons are all Georgetown alumni.

The McCourt School of Public Policy, to be launched in October, will join a host of schools with a similar mission at other universities. Harvard has the John F. Kennedy School of Government. George Washington has the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration. There are also public policy schools at the University of Maryland and George Mason University.

Georgetown’s version will focus on analysis of massive data files emerging from a plethora of government agencies and other sources in the 21st century, seeking to shed light on education, health, poverty and other subjects.

“Georgetown has a very, very deep capacity here,” McCourt said. “It’s a university that is in the right place at the right time to tackle some of these global issues.”

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The McCourt gift will fund an expansion of faculty, scholarships for top students, a Center for Global Politics and Policy, and a Massive Data Institute. The school will be based in the Old North building on the main campus but at some point could move to another part of the District to be closer to government agencies.

LA Observed photo of McCourt with Manny Ramirez at Dodgers spring training