BATON ROUGE - LSU has received a $1 million donation from the estate of Thomas J. "T.J." Moran, a longtime Baton Rouge restaurant operator.

The funds will go to four programs at LSU.

Members of Moran's family visited campus Thursday to present $250,000 donations to the university's Paul M. Hebert Law Center, Manship School of Mass Communication, E.J. Ourso College of Business and the College of Human Sciences & Education.

Moran died in May at age 84. In 1975, he opened the first Ruth's Chris franchise on the outskirts of Baton Rouge in Prairieville, going on to become one of the company's largest U.S. franchisees with about a dozen locations.