Former Duke University trustee Roy Bostock and his wife Merilee will give $5 million to the Duke Athletics Department, school officials announced Thursday.

Their gift is in support of Duke Athletics’ “Building Champions” fundraising effort, whose goal is to raise $250 million to support annual needs, upgrade facilities and endow scholarships and programs.

“Building Champions” is part of the $3.25 billion university-wide fundraising campaign, Duke Forward, launched in September.

Roy and Merilee Bostock are both 1962 graduates of Duke. Roy Bostock also earned an M.B.A. from Harvard.

“We’re very grateful for this gift, which continues the wonderful tradition of philanthropy that Roy and Merilee Bostock have established at Duke,” Duke President Richard H. Brodhead said in a news release. “From the libraries to athletics, their generosity has enriched and elevated the student experience at Duke.”

The Bostock gift is the third commitment of $5 million or more announced by the Department of Athletics in the past five months. Dr. Steven Scott and his wife, Rebecca Scott, and Duke Forward co-chairman David Rubenstein each pledged $10 million gifts to Duke Athletics in October and December, respectively.

In addition to his two terms on the board of trustees, Roy Bostock was a member of the Fuqua School of Business Board of Visitors, director of Duke University Health System and co-chair of the Presidential Council, among other roles on various committees and boards. He received one of the university’s highest honors – the Distinguished Alumni Award – in 2008.

At Duke, the Bostock Library is named for the Bostock family. Dedicated in the fall of 2005, the Bostock Library comprises five floors of services and collections that are configured to create an environment conducive to study, learning and research. The Bostock Library is connected through a gateway to the main Perkins Library building.

Roy Bostock played football and baseball for the Blue Devils. He earned a letter on the 1961 football team that went 7-3, earned the Atlantic Coast Conference championship and was ranked 20th in the final Associated Press national poll. He also lettered for the baseball team in 1960.

In 2008, Bostock chaired the search committee that brought Kevin White to campus as its vice president and director of athletics.