The Black Resource Centre at San Diego State University will be renamed after a man who was born into slavery in Kentucky but became an entrepreneur after moving to California in 1886. He is being honoured because of his generosity to others – specifically a Chinese-American family who could not find anywhere else to live on Coronado island in 1939 due to racial restrictions.

Gus Thompson, who was born in Kentucky about 1859 or 1860, came to California to work as a coachman for Elisha Spurr Babcock, carrying the first guests to the Hotel Del Coronado. He married Emma Gardner in San Diego in 1892, and they raised three remarkable children in Coronado.

Brothers Lloyd Dong Jr. and Ron Dong will be making a $5 million donation in honour of Gus and Emma. Ron was only two years old when his parents moved to Coronado in 1939 from San Diego. Lloyd Dong Sr. worked six days a week as a gardener for wealthy Coronado residents, and the family wanted to live on the island to shorten his commute.