David A. Tepper didn't forget Carnegie Mellon University after he earned his master's degree in business administration there in 1982. Chances are, the university won't soon forget David Tepper.

The Wall Street investor and his wife, Marlene, have made the largest donation to the university in its 104-year history, a $55 million gift to its business school.

One of the top-ranked business schools in the country, the Graduate School of Industrial Administration will henceforth be called the David A. Tepper School of Business.

"The outstanding education I received at Carnegie Mellon gave me the ability to analyze investment options in such a unique way that I'm still capitalizing on what I learned there to this day," said Tepper in a statement released by the university.

A Pittsburgh native, the 46-year-old Tepper is president and founder of Appaloosa Management, a $3 billion hedge fund investment firm in Chatham, N.J. The fund specializes in investing borrowed money in distressed companies that are either in or on the verge of bankruptcy, including such recent examples as Conseco, WorldCom and Enron.

According to Institutional Investor magazine, Tepper earned $225 million in 2001.

Tepper is scheduled to appear at a news conference this morning in Oakland with Carnegie Mellon President Jared Cohon and the dean of the business school, Kenneth Dunn.

Before the Teppers' $55 million donation, Carnegie Mellon's largest single gift was $54 million from an anonymous donor, announced in 2001.

The school plans to use $5 million of the gift to retain and attract leading professors, enhance the student experience, continue academic innovation, develop lifelong learning opportunities for alumni and advance the school's visibility.

The remaining $50 million will be added to the school's endowment, increasing it to $137 million.

Since assuming the deanship in 2001, Dunn has made it a goal to increase national recognition of the business school, which for three consecutive years has made the Wall Street Journal's listing of Top 10 business schools.

And while boosting the school's profile, Dunn also has cultivated the school's alumni in hopes of increasing contributions. The school's endowment has lagged far behind those of other leading business schools.

"The Teppers' donation provides a transformational opportunity for the school to remain at the intersection of business and technology and to anticipate and respond to the dynamic needs of the global marketplace," Dunn said in a statement.

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, the largest single donation to U.S. higher education remains the $1 billion pledged in 1999 by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to the Gates Millenium Scholars program.

The second-largest gift, a $600 million pledge to the California Institute of Technology, was made in 2001 by Gordon and Betty Moore. Also that year, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation gave $400 million to Stanford University and an anonymous donor gave $360 million to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

The Teppers' contribution is the second-largest "naming gift" made to a U.S. business school. Earlier this year, Samuel S. and Rita Garvin gave $60 million to a Glendale, Ariz., school known as Thunderbird, The Garvin School of International Management.

Before founding Appaloosa Management, Tepper was the head trader in the high-yield department at the firm of Goldman Sachs. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and three children.

"I owe a lot to my former professor, Dean Ken Dunn, and the rest of the faculty," he said. "This gift is an investment in the legacy the school has already built and a vote of confidence in the future of the Tepper School of Business."

Tepper's uncle, Bernard Tepper of Squirrel Hill, said last night he was "shocked at the amount" of his nephew's gift to Carnegie Mellon, but very proud.

He described his nephew as conservative and down-to-earth. "No one would ever know he has the wealth he has. He doesn't flaunt it."

David Tepper grew up in Stanton Heights, his uncle said. His father, Harry, was an accountant and his mother, Roberta, a teacher for the Pittsburgh Public Schools. They moved to Florida more than a decade ago, Bernard Tepper said.

After graduating from Peabody High School, David Tepper received a bachelor's degree from Pitt before earning an MBA from CMU, his uncle said.

He said his nephew has a brother, Scott, a business executive who lives in a suburb of Youngstown, Ohio, and a sister, Sheryl, who lives in Florida.

Besides Bernard Tepper and his wife, Marcella, David Tepper has several other relatives in the Pittsburgh area, his uncle said.

They include an aunt, Rita Tauberg, of Shadyside, and another aunt and uncle, Norman and Phyllis Tauberg, of Monroeville, Bernard Tepper said.