(AP) — The estate of Mary Riepma (REEP’-muh) Ross has provided $7.7 million to establish a permanent endowment supporting the media arts center that bears her name.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln announced the donation on Tuesday. Ross was an attorney in New York City who died earlier this year. She lived in Lincoln during the late 1920s and early 1930s and began her college studies at the university.

Ross also has donated much of her art collection to the Sheldon Museum of Art, an intention she first announced in 1990.

In 1990 Ross established a $3.5 million trust at the University of Nebraska Foundation to support the university’s film theater program. The money helped pay for construction of the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center, which opened in 2003.