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# Donors come through big for SM museum
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/donors-come-through-big-for-sm-museum/
- Published: 2007-04-02T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T00:21:15.000Z
- Author: Melody Hanatani
- Tags: local, Downtown, #archive-import

EUCLID STREET The Santa Monica Historical Society Museum is rolling in the dough.

In an effort to raise $5 million to build a new facility within the Santa Monica Public Library in Downtown, the Historical Society has received a major boost from three very generous donors.

Museum President and CEO Louise Gabriel and her husband, Bob, have contributed to the fund as have former local newspaper owners Ron and Ann Funk. John E. Gilmore has also dug deep into his pocket for the cause. All three parties have donated $100,000 each to the campaign, for a grand total of $300,000.

The donations are the largest the society has received from private benefactors, according to officials.

“Santa Monica has quite a history and I think it should be preserved,” Gilmore said on Friday.

The historical society has raised more than one-third of its total fundraising goal from more than 100 donors, including various organizations, said Ho Nguyen, director of operations.

The museum plans to move into its new 5,000-square-foot facility by the end of this year.

Gilmore, a long-time resident of Santa Monica and a retired ophthalmologist, is still active in the community, supporting organizations such as the Kiwanis and the Boys & Girls Club.

The Funks have been heavily involved in preserving Santa Monica’s history since 1975 when they joined the Santa Monica Centennial Committee. Ron Funk published a supplement about the history of Santa Monica in the Evening Outlook — a now defunct newspaper — during the same year.

At the time, the Centennial Committee saw a need to form a permanent historical organization and that led to the formation of the Santa Monica Historical Society Museum, said Ann Funk, who moved to Nevada with her husband in 1980.

The Gabriels have been involved in the Historical Society Museum since its inception in 1975\. Bob Gabriel, the owner of Santa Monica-based insurance company Bob Gabriel Co., also serves on the museums’ Board of Directors.

“For people to take pride in their community, they really need to know the history and it’s important to educate young people about the history because they’re going to be the future leaders of Santa Monica,” Louise Gabriel said on Friday.“It’s important for them to know how Santa Monica began and how it’s progressed over the years.”

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/040207-12_01.jpg)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 2, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/040207.pdf?ref=smdp.com)