Library Love Affair Sparks Major Gift
By Sarah Gibson
After more than 60 years, it was a memory that prompted Jim and Ann Milano to make a $500,000 gift to benefit WVU's Charles C. Wise Jr. Library.
The Milanos read about the WVU Libraries recently in West Virginia University Alumni Magazine. The story brought back fond memories of their undergraduate days at WVU, they said.
"We owe our beginnings to WVU. We made this gift because we wanted to give something back to the University," said Jim Milano. "We both spent many hours in the library. It was our second home during our college years."
Their gift is two-fold. Half will be used to renovate Wise Library's East Reading Room. The remaining $250,000 will create the James V. and Ann Pozega Milano Reading Room and Collection Endowment Fund. The endowment will maintain and replace the furnishings in the room, which will be named for the Milanos, and support the acquisition and preservation of the Appalachian Collection, to be housed in the Milano Reading Room.
"Today's students and scholars are seeking quiet spaces for thought as well as seeking the newest technology," said Frances O'Brien, dean of the WVU Libraries. "This reading room will provide the atmosphere for a researcher to apply imagination and energy to today's problems, as well as appreciating some of the culture of the past. I'm grateful to Mr. and Mrs. Milano for making this possible."
The Milanos, both Morgantown natives, are graduates of University High School and said they knew each other only casually while there. Both opted to attend WVU, he to study chemistry and she to focus on home economics. It was at WVU that their paths converged forever.
Jim Milano recalled frequenting the Wise Library meeting room because there was no desk in his room at home and it was the best place to study. He had noticed Ann there several times before finally working up enough nerve to ask her to go to a movie at the Metropolitan Theater. Mondays were 25-cent movie nights.
It was the beginning of a relationship that has lasted more than 60 years-and that is why this gift is so very important to them, they said. The reading room being renovated is the very same room in which the couple met.
After graduating from WVU in 1940, Jim Milano spent 22 years in the U.S. Army during which time he earned an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and a doctorate in business administration from George Washington University. He retired from the army with the rank of colonel and went to work for the Pfizer Corporation. Jim retired from Pfizer as a vice president in 1985. He is the author of a book published in 1996: Soldiers, Spies, and the Rat Line: America's Undeclared War Against the Soviets. A copy is held by the WVU library.
Ann graduated from WVU in 1941 and taught in the public schools. The couple married in 1945 and they now reside in Winchester, Virginia. She left teaching to raise their four children, Mary, Barbara, Kathryn, and James.
The gift was pledged through the WVU Foundation in conjunction with Building Greatness, Campaign: West Virginia University, a $250 million fund-raising effort it is conducting on behalf of the University.
$2.2 Million Gift Assists Lewis County Students
The WVU Foundation has received $2.2 million
from the estate of Mary Jackson of Jane Lew, West Virginia, to
provide scholarships for students from Lewis County to attend
WVU. Jackson earned a master's degree in education from WVU in
1928.
The Mary M. Jackson Scholarship Fund will benefit students who
qualify for admission to WVU and meet national guidelines for
need. First preference will be given to students who reside in
Jane Lew.
"This fund will enable generations of Lewis County students,
many of whom would not otherwise have the opportunity, to attend
the University," said F. Duke Perry, president of the WVU
Foundation. "Scholarship funds, such as the one provided
by Mary Jackson, enable the University to expand its capacity
of assisting deserving students-a cornerstone of WVU's land-grant
mission."
Jackson, who died in April 2000 at the age of 98, lived most
of her life in Jane Lew, where her family operated a general
store. She taught junior high school students in Jane Lew and
Ohio, and worked in the state education office in Charleston.
Following her retirement she traveled, spending time in the Far
East and Europe.
Jackson attended Mary Baldwin College, received a bachelor's
degree in education from West Virginia Wesleyan College, and
was active in the Chi Omega Sorority.
According to Jackson Anderson, a long-time family friend and
her attorney, Jackson strongly believed in education and family.
She also was very interested in the history of Jane Lew and her
family. Jackson had one brother, the late George J. Jackson of
Clarksburg.
The scholarship endowment was created through the WVU Foundation
in conjunction with Building Greatness, Campaign: West Virginia
University, a $250 million fund-raising effort it is conducting
on behalf of the University.
Insuring WVU's Future
by Deborah Miller
"I had the chance to expand as a person
during my years at WVU," recalls Walt Hopkins Jr., a 1951
graduate of WVU and the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences.
He certainly did. Hopkins, a native of Elizabeth, West Virginia,
was elected president of the student body in 1950-51. He also
served as president of his junior and senior classes.
To attend the University, Hopkins says he was fortunate to receive
a Board of Governors Scholarship to cover his $37 tuition, and
he worked as the headwaiter in Terrace Hall to earn his $15 monthly
room rent.
Capitalizing on his ready smile, Hopkins became a life insurance
agent after returning from military service in Korea following
graduation. For the past 48 years, he has earned his livelihood
selling life and disability insurance in the Morgantown area.
"I wouldn't have traded my job for anybody's," he says.
Hopkins and his wife, the former Mary Ann Sutter, raised four
children. All are WVU graduates.
Perhaps it was Hopkins's knowledge of insurance that motivated
him to make a gift of life insurance to the WVU Foundation to
support the University. "Yes, it provides a tax deduction
and a good way to help WVU someday," says Hopkins, who has
chosen to leave the use of the policy proceeds to the discretion
of the University.
Some find that donating a policy they purchased for other reasons
is an easy way to provide a significant level of support, and
their gift counts in the Building Greatness campaign.
A simple change of ownership form, designating the WVU Foundation
as the owner, is all that's needed. Also, employment-related
policies can provide good gifts.
Those donating a universal or whole life policy receive an income
tax deduction. Additional premiums to keep the policy in force
are also deductible gifts.
As Hopkins has done, the donor is free to choose the way the
policy's proceeds will benefit WVU.
Hopkins's gift entitles him to membership in The Irvin Stewart
Society. "I'm proud of my long affiliation with WVU and
glad that I could help, too," he says.