Peter B. Lewis, top executive of Progressive Corp. in Mayfield, has donated $7 million to the American Civil Liberties Union - the largest gift ever by an individual, officials said yesterday.

Five million dollars of the total is earmarked for the organization's drug-policy litigation project, which is challenging, for example, drug testing in schools and restrictions on medical marijuana.

The ACLU of Ohio Foundation and the national ACLU each received $1 million for general purposes.

All of the money is in an endowment fund with a baseline return of 5 percent, said Emily Whitfield, an ACLU spokeswoman in New York.

"This is the largest gift we have ever received in Ohio . . . by three or four times, from anyone, including foundations," said Chris Link, executive director of the Ohio ACLU.

He added that the money assigned to her organization will be used on litigation and education for:protection of individual liberty. Lewis, chairman of Progressive, has been a member of the ACLU since 1972. Seen as an energetic executive and philanthropist, his past contributions include:

$50 million to Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York;

$55 million to Princeton University, his alma mater;

$28.8 million to Case Western Reserve University for the construction of a new Weatherhead School of Management Building.

Lewis also has argued for rehabilitation over jail for drug offenders, and for legalization of marijuana for medical use. In January 2000, he was arrested in New Zealand with nearly 5 ounces of marijuana and marijuana resin.

Lewis, who was unavailable for comment yesterday, said in a news release he has long been an admirer of ACLU's work to protect individual freedoms.

Leslie Kolleda, a Progressive spokeswoman, said the donation established the Peter Lewis Fund for Personal Liberty, a named fund in the ACLU's endowment fund, which contains the $5 million earmarked for drug-policy issues.

Lewis' donation also helped match a $14 million challenge from the Ford Foundation, which in 1999 contributed $7 million to ACLU's endowment fund. The fund, called the Trust for Bill of Rights, was established in 1997.

Contact Tomoeh Murakami at: tmurakami@plaind.com, 216-999-5703