The former chief executive of Rockwell International Corp., through a family foundation, has donated $6.6 million to UC Irvine's Paul Merage School of Business, the university announced on Friday.

The university will name its Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Don Beall, 68, a Corona del Mar resident who retired from Rockwell in 1998 after 30 years with the aerospace giant.

The endowment will expand existing programs, such as workshops in innovation, and start new programs including "open source" studies on innovation on the Merage School's Web site. The Beall Center will organize current research worldwide to help businesses, universities and community groups understand common problems of innovation.

"We as a family feel very strongly that for this area to reach its potential, UCI... needs to become similar to UCLA and (UC) Berkeley and Stanford and the role they have played in development of business and the engine of economic growth," said Beall in a phone interview from Pebble Beach. "Innovation is a core strength of our economy. America's success depends on ensuring that innovation and entrepreneurship continue to be nurtured and exploited."

The Beall Family Foundation gift will have a lasting effect on the study of innovation and is "a fitting legacy to Beall as an innovative and transformative business leader," said Merage School Dean Andy Policano. "Our focus on strategic innovation as a driver of sustainable business growth has just taken a giant leap forward, thanks to the Beall family's extraordinary gift."

The Beall family has been a supporter of several programs at UCI including the Henry Samueli School of Engineering, and the Don and Joan Beall Center for Art and Technology at the Claire Trevor School of the Arts, the UCI Chief Executive Roundtable and the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information, a joint project with UC San Diego.