Ray Dolby estate donates $52.6 million to University of Cambridge

Dolby, founder of Dolby Laboratories, received his doctorate from the British university in 1961 and was a graduate student and research fellow at Pembroke.

The donation, a cornerstone of the university’s current $3 billion fundraising campaign, will fund construction of the Ray and Dagmar Dolby Court, a common area and housing for students.

Ray Dolby founded Dolby Laboratories 50 years ago in London and changed the entertainment industry with his audio noise reduction system.

Cambridge, which has artifacts that include Sir Issac Newton’s scientific papers, Charles Darwin’s manuscripts and an original Gutenberg Bible, scheduled a private event for alumni and friends in San Francisco Thursday evening to celebrate the donation.

“This gift will create a spectacular setting in which future students will benefit from the university’s education and begin to make their own mark in the world of innovation, as Ray did with such notable impact,” Professor Leszek Borysiewicz, Cambridge vice chancellor, said in a statement.