Fraternity Brothers Create Life Income Gifts
By Deborah Miller
Their easy banter and quick laughter tell you that these four have been good friends for a long time.
Don Bopp, ’55 and Dave Harman, ’56 were fraternity brothers at West Virginia University (Kappa Sigma) and have enjoyed a close friendship ever since. Their wives, Ann and Dorothy, respectively, knew each other in high school. The couples now reside in Wheeling.
Both alums have remained connected to WVU and have decided that a smart way to support its future is through life income gifts created with the WVU Foundation.
Mr. Harman is a retired pharmacist who operated the family drug store (with a soda fountain) in New Martinsville for 36 years. Mrs. Harman is an artist and enjoys collecting frog-shaped jewelry and figurines. Their daughters are both WVU graduates; Anne Harman, Class of ’89, and Susan Harman Confair, Class of ’93. The Bopps are ardent Mountaineer football fans and schedule their autumn weekends accordingly.
Mr. Bopp has now logged 20 years’ experience in the realty business at Paull Associates, following a 30-year career with Wheeling-Pitt Steel Company. After working as a salesman based in Florida for the Corrugating Division of Wheeling-Pitt, he returned to Wheeling as the division’s office supervisor. Mrs. Bopp is the office manager for the Victorian Wheeling Society. They also attend most WVU home football games with their longtime friends.
Like the Bopps and Harmans, many have learned that a life income gift arrangement provides an income supplement paired with an income tax deduction. Using stocks, bonds, mutual funds, or cash (minimum $25,000) makes good sense for such a gift option. When appreciated property is donated, favorable tax treatment of the capital gain occurs.
The Bopps have set up a number of life income gifts, beginning in the 1990s, as a retirement income supplement. “Looking at other things we could do, I thought it was a good idea,” he says. “It’s a good investment that’s also a donation to support WVU’s future.”
Similar reasoning worked for Harman, who recalls, “I saw some information from the Foundation and thought this kind of gift would be good for getting some income we couldn’t outlive.” To accomplish that, he contributed stocks in 2001. “I liked the good return and thought it was a good thing for WVU too.”
When the income the couple now receives comes to an end, the remaining amount will establish the Harman Scholarship for pharmacy majors.
Members of the WVU Foundation Board of Directors are leaders in business, the professions, and civic affairs, and hail from West Virginia and across the nation. All serve without compensation. They volunteer their time and energy, contribute their considerable expertise, and give of their own resources to support the University they so love and respect.
Meet Board members Clara C. Thomas and Peter S. White.
WVU Foundation Board Profiles
By Drew Epperley
Clara C. Thomas has the longest tenure for a female member of the WVU Foundation Board of Directors, serving since 1978.
A native of Charleston, Mrs. Thomas earned an AS in business at Marshall University and a BS in business and an AB in economics at the University of Charleston. She earned an MBA from the West Virginia Graduate College, where she was the recipient of an honorary doctor of laws degree. She was employed by the State of West Virginia and the Union Carbide Corporation.
A founding member of the WVU College of Creative Arts Advisory Board, she also serves on the Board of Friends of West Virginia Culture and History, Marshall’s Graduate College Foundation, and the Builders of the University of Charleston, where she also is an emeritus trustee.
Mrs. Thomas is on the Snowshoe Institute Board of Advisors and is a member and former chair of the Charleston Beautification Commission.
In 1997 Mrs. Thomas was awarded the John Marshall Medal for Civic Responsibility. In 2000 she and husband, Jim, were inducted into the Lewis College of Business Hall of Fame at Marshall and in 2002 the couple was honored as Most Loyal West Virginians, which exemplifies faithfulness to the ideals and goals of the state through business, professional, and civic achievement as well as support of WVU.
The Thomases reside in Charleston, have two sons, Jay and Robert, and seven grandchildren.
Peter S. White, an insurance executive, has the longest tenure of any member of the WVU Foundation Board of Directors, having served as a member since 1967 and three years prior to that time as an associate member.
A member of the Mountaineer basketball and track teams from 1951 to 1955, he graduated from WVU in 1955 with a bachelor’s degree in business. He then pursued a master’s degree in industrial relations from the University and served in the U.S. Air Force as a navigator. In 2001 he was inducted into WVU’s prestigious Order of Vandalia, which recognizes service to the state and to the University.
Mr. White, a native of Clendenin, West Virginia, has had a distinguished career in the life insurance industry. He is a chartered life underwriter, chartered financial consultant, and accredited estate planner. In 2004, he qualified for the Top of the Table, a life insurance group that represents the top 1,000 agents throughout the world.
Currently, he and his son, Brad, are principals in The White Planning Group in Charleston. Their firm focuses on estate and closely held business planning.
White has been extremely active in community services in the Charleston area. He served as president of the West Virginia Allergy Foundation, the Funds for the Arts, the Society for Financial Service Professionals, and the Kanawha Valley Heart Association. He has also served as the vice president of the Sunrise Museum and treasurer for the Charleston YMCA and the West Virginia Heart Association.
He and his wife, Jo, also a WVU graduate, reside in Charleston. They are charter members of the Irvin Stewart Society, which honors those who have made estate gifts in support of the University, and lifelong members of the WVU Alumni Association. Mr. White also has served as president of two WVU Alumni Association chapters, the Kanawha Valley Chapter and West Coast of Florida Chapter.
New Recognition for Consecutive Donors
By Sara Gibson
The University Fund, formerly known as the Annual Fund, has implemented a new donor recognition program called Foundation Associates.
The program acknowledges donors who have made gifts of $100 or more for five consecutive years to the WVU Foundation to benefit West Virginia University. Charter members of Foundation Associates include those who made gifts during fiscal years 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005.
“These donors are an important source of private support that ensures WVU students receive a quality education,” says Greg McCracken, director of The University Fund. “Their gifts help to support student funds, provide library resources, purchase laboratory equipment, bring visiting lecturers to campus, and much more.”
The WVU Foundation has always valued annual fund support from its alumni and friends, and the Foundation Associates Program provides another opportunity to demonstrate this deep appreciation.
Members receive special recognition, including invitations to Foundation football tailgate tents and listings in the University Fund Donor Honor Roll and on the Foundation’s electronic Wall of Honor, which is located on the first floor of One Waterfront Place.
The University Fund provides vital resources that allow WVU to excel as a world-class research facility and as an exemplary teaching institution. Those resources also enable the University to perform services and outreach to the state, region, and nation, thus fulfilling its land-grant mission.
Additional programs under the umbrella of The University Fund include Foundation Partners, the Campus Campaign, Student Support Fund, the Fund for WVU, Mountaineer Mark, and the Mountaineer Line.
University Sets Fund-Raising Priorities
By Pam Fronko
All great academic institutions have a common element . . . generous private support from alumni, friends, corporations, and philanthropic foundations. West Virginia University is no exception. The University has identified six priorities upon which the WVU Foundation will focus its fund-raising efforts for the next three years.
The priorities, which will be detailed in future issues of the WVU Alumni Magazine, include:
• Student Enrichment—Providing funds to expand student learning, create scholarships, and enhance enrichment opportunities such as internships and travel abroad.
• Faculty Endowments—Increasing the number of endowed chairs and professorships.
• West Virginia University Alumni Center—Ensuring a comfortable and memorable home for alumni returning to their beloved alma mater. Supporting this initiative is an ideal way to demonstrate University pride, as well as to provide guests with an impressive center.
• Strategic Interdisciplinary Research Initiatives—Supporting the University’s six interdisciplinary centers of biomedical research, each of which is focused on an area of service linked to the leading causes of disease and death among West Virginians.
• Intercollegiate Athletics—Enabling WVU to have the private support necessary to recruit and train elite student-athletes in first-class facilities, fund competitive salaries, and compete on a level playing field with similar institutions.
• Priority Needs of the University’s Colleges and Schools—Helping WVU’s individual colleges and schools meet their own specific needs for enhancement.
“Future growth depends in large part on expanded fiscal capacity,” said WVU President David C. Hardesty Jr. “As is the case with all comprehensive land-grant institutions, private support will be a critical factor in successfully competing for prominence in the national arena.”
Pharmaceutical Giant Wyeth Commits
$11.79 Million to Support Biomedical Research
By Bill Case
Wyeth Pharmaceuticals has committed $11.79 million in support of biomedical research at West Virginia University over the next three years.
The Wyeth Pharmaceutical Research Fund at WVU will be used to support up to 15 new faculty positions at the Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center. The University hopes to hire scientists who specialize in heart and vascular diseases, diabetes and obesity, neurobiology, and respiratory biology.
“These Wyeth Research Scholars will contribute their efforts toward finding the causes and cures of diseases that afflict tens of thousands of West Virginians. This will add immeasurably to the advancement of WVU as a research institution,” says David C. Hardesty Jr., University president.
“Wyeth chose WVU for this research support because of its history of high-quality research and a faculty and administration committed to pursuing the best science possible in state-of-the-art biomedical research facilities,” says Dr. Robert R. Ruffolo Jr., senior vice president at Wyeth. In 2000 the company consented to fund this research as part of an agreement that settled West Virginia diet drug litigation.
The Wyeth Fund enables WVU to take immediate action in filling faculty positions called for in its long-term bioscience research plan. “We are already in an aggressive recruitment program,” says Dr. Robert M. D’Alessandri, WVU vice president for health sciences. In the last year, WVU has attracted several established scientists with ongoing National Institutes of Health research projects. “The Wyeth Research Scholars will include both junior and senior scientists, and will join either the WVU School of Medicine or School of Pharmacy at the professor, assistant professor, or associate professor level. In addition to strengthening our research programs, they will add depth to our teaching faculty and to our clinical departments.”
WVU health researchers have identified six core areas of research, based in large part on the health needs of the state. The Wyeth funds will support basic research in three of the core areas: cardiovascular sciences, respiratory biology, and diabetes/obesity. The gift was made through the WVU Foundation.