SALEM - On a rainy day that should have kept the crowd down, more than 300 people packed a tent at Salem State College to thank Henry and Donna Bertolon for their $2.5 million donation, the largest private gift in the college's history and a record for any Massachusetts state college.

The Beverly couple, in turn, thanked the college.

"There's a vision here," said Henry Bertolon, 54, a 1974 graduate of Salem State. "And thanks to the dedicated work of the college's leaders and their staffs, there is a road map to realizing that vision. When Donna and I find that combination, we get excited and we want to support it ... I thank the college for giving us the opportunity to be part of such meaningful work."

Bertolon, a developer who made his fortune on an Internet computer chip business, announced last year that he was giving $2.5 million to the business school to help it hire more faculty with doctorates, upgrade the library and improve the overall curriculum - all key steps on the road to accreditation.

Yesterday's ceremony was the official naming of the Bertolon School of Business.

"Your generosity, Henry and Donna, will be legendary across the commonwealth," said Senate Majority Leader Fred Berry of Peabody, who helped secure state funds a decade ago to acquire the former Sylvania plant on Loring Avenue where an old factory building was transformed into a business school.

Berry joked that those original funds were in a transportation bond bill for a college parking lot.

"It's come a long way from a parking lot," the state senator said as the crowd laughed.

Patricia Plummer, chancellor of the state Board of Higher Education, told the crowd that the Bertolons' gift was enough to ignore the rain pounding on the tent.

"It's really a sunny day for Salem State College," she said.

There was a lot of talk about the college's vision, its quest for university status, and the boost Salem State got from this gift and several others, totaling nearly $6 million in the past year. The Bertolons' donation, several speakers said, pushes Salem State closer to one of its major long-term goals - accreditation for the business school.

"Your philanthropy will make possible so many of the college's dreams," said Howard Wayne, chairman of the board of trustees.

Salem State President Nancy Harrington said she used to go to bed at night fantasizing about the large donations made to private colleges and wishing a public college like Salem State could be as fortunate.

"My dreams came true," she said.

The Big Four

Recent private gifts to Salem State College:

February 2006: Peter and Carolyn Lynch, $400,000 challenge grant

February 2006: Jack Welch, $1 million

November 2005: Henry and Donna Bertolon, $2.5 million

September 2005: Bernard and Sophia Gordon, $2 million