Batchelor Foundation gift of $100,000 will boost plans for construction of new small animal hospital

The Batchelor Foundation has given $100,000, the first significant building block in the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine’s quest to build a new small animal hospital.

The Batchelor Foundation, founded by aviation entrepreneur George E. Batchelor, of Miami Beach, is known for its philanthropy, particularly in South Florida. The foundation focuses primarily on environmental issues and children’s causes, including medical research.

“George is just passionate about the University of Florida veterinary school’s commitment to the care of animals,” said his daughter-in-law of 23 years, Sandy Batchelor. “He’s not afraid of any animals - tarantulas, snakes, rhinos, cheetahs. And he has petted them all.”

The UF veterinary college gift, known as a “challenge grant,” was originally earmarked toward Small Animal Hospital renovation -- as well as for the treatment of sick and injured animals receiving care at UF’s Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital.

It will now be used to offset the cost of a new building because the college has changed its priorities in that regard, said Zoë Walker, the college’s director of development and alumni affairs.

The significance of a challenge grant is that all the funds contained in it are to be used on a matching-fund basis for the same purpose. Once the college has raised the matching $100,000, the Batchelor Foundation will contribute an additional $100,000.

“Obviously this is a major step in the right direction in terms of helping us meet our goal to build a new small animal hospital,” Walker said.

George E. Batchelor, a native of Oklahoma, resides in Miami Beach.

“At one time he was the single largest private owner of a company that sold and leased commercial aircraft,” said Sandy Batchelor.

A graduate of the Aeronautical Institute of California, George Batchelor has more than 50 years of diversified aircraft sales, leasing and maintenance experience and has owned several airlines.

He is chief executive officer and chairman of the board of Aerospace and was former founder and chairman of Aero Air, as well as International Airleases Inc.

A pilot for the U.S. Army Air Corps in World War II, he spent two years in Europe, where he received the Air and Victory medals, both of which are presidential citations.

“When he got out of the service, he started ‘horse-trading’ planes,” Sandy Batchelor said. “He was very good at it, and that’s how he got where he is today.”