The new gift arrived last week at the office of District Court Judge William C. Kluttz Jr., who chairs The Blanche and Julian Robertson Family Foundation’s board of directors.

Overwhelmed, Kluttz described the new gift as “a complete surprise.”

“As I have said in the past,” Kluttz said in a press release, “extraordinary people do extraordinary things, and this generous gift makes Julian Robertson the most extraordinary person I have ever met.”

Dave Setzer, executive director of the foundation, said the gift significantly increases the earning capacity of the foundation.

It arrived just 10 days before the March 1 grant application deadline for the 2000 spring cycle of the foundation. The extra money will provide more resources for future grants, funded with interest earned from the foundation’s investments.

Applications for the spring grants must be in the foundation’s office at 315 N. Main St. by 5 p.m. March 1 or postmarked no later than March 1. The foundation board meets April 17 to make its decisions.

In its first two years, the Robertson Foundation has made 75 grants totaling $3,378,782.

The foundation began operations Jan. 2, 1998, and directs money to programs and projects in Salisbury and the surrounding area.

Robertson, founder and general partner of Tiger Management in New York, has become one of the country’s leading philanthropists, being listed in Worth Magazine’s annual report of the nation’s most charitable people.

He has given generously to the Tiger Foundation, which he established to help disadvantaged children and their families in the New York City area. In 1998, he gave $25 million to New York’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

His other major gifts have gone to cancer research and treatment, education and youth and family services.

Robertson is son of the late Julian and Blanche Robertson. He grew up in Salisbury with sisters Wyndham and Blanche, and he serves on the board of trustees of Catawba College. He and his wife, Josie, have three sons, including Spencer Robertson, who sits on the local board of directors.