Next to Joan Kroc's $1.5 billion for the Salvation Army or her $200 million for National Public Radio, San Diego's latest philanthropy seems almost ho-hum. But businessman Ernest Rady's $30 million gift to UCSD is another remarkable act of generosity that will have major and lasting impact.

Rady's donation is the second-largest private gift UCSD has ever received. It will go to the university's fledgling School of Management, turning it, said Dean Robert Sullivan, "from inspired dreams into reality."

Sullivan has big dreams for the Rady School of Management. He hopes that it will some day be on par with the renowned Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and the Kellogg School at Northwestern.

That will take time. But it can more immediately deliver on its more unconventional – and perhaps more important – goal of recruiting students from diverse academic backgrounds who are also grounded in science and technology. Plans include joint degree disciplines in engineering, medicine and international relations. That is visionary, for it is where the world economy is headed.

Rady, like so many San Diegans, is an immigrant. He came here in 1966 from Winnipeg, Canada, and began making his estimated $1.5 billion fortune in real estate and radio. He also has been involved in oil, financing, baseball and beer. Ironically, he has no direct ties to the university.

"People ask me, why UCSD?" he said at a news conference Thursday. "I know that any program launched at UCSD will be among the best. Hopefully, this school will allow others to enhance our country's economy and success."

San Diego is increasingly blessed with immigrants and philanthropists and immigrant-philanthropists. They seek to give back to a community that has been good to them. We owe them our gratitude.