At the end of March, the Campaign for Washington, the UW’s first major fund drive, reached $268.3 million in gifts and pledges, far exceeding its $250 million goal. The campaign continues until its end on June 30. The majority of gifts have come from individuals, and behind each gift is a uniquely personal story.
Darold Talley, ’52, grew up in Longview, Wash., and thought his future was working in a sawmill. A football scholarship to the UW in 1948 “opened a door for me,” he says. “It let me do what I always wanted to do—teach and be a coach.” Talley recently retired from Tacoma’s Clover Park High School, where he taught since 1959. His $2,500 pledge for endowed athletic scholarships “is a small way of returning some assistance I had in 1948,” he says.
His son, Drew Talley, ’82, pledged the amount needed for a full, four-year scholarship in honor of his father. “I wanted to help a good student who is putting him or herself through school but wouldn’t necessarily qualify for a scholarship,” says Drew, now an insurance broker in New York. “The UW was important to my father and myself, and I know how much that scholarship meant to him.”
Helen Maher, ’65, of Danville, Calif., says she made her $5,000 pledge to the School of Nursing because “I had an excellent education with wonderful faculty that prepared me for my career.” Maher remembers many inspirational teachers. “It’s nice to be able to say thank you in some small way.”
Frank Fogde, ’41, flew Navy fighters during World War II and helped design them afterwards, using his UW training in aeronautical engineering. Fogde and his wife, who live in Florida, have given almost $29,000 for an endowed aeronautics scholarship in memory of their son, Lance Erik Fogde, whose own military career was cut short by a helicopter accident in 1968. “I want to help somebody deserving and in need,” says Fogde. “That gives me a great deal of satisfaction.”
Each of these gifts started with a telephone call from the University asking for a gift to the campaign, says Marilyn Dunn, UW vice president for development. “It is gratifying to know what a difference the University has made in so many people’s lives.”