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f 2 CHARITABLE R EMEMBE R ESTATE PLANNIN G & TAX TIPS SUMMER SS TTAANNFFOORRDD 2007 Creating a Legacy STANFORD SCRAPBOOK Studio art students on the Main Quad in the 1950s BEQUESTS : A T THE HEART OF THE STANFORD CHALLENGE equests have played a fundamental role in the generation of leaders. A key goal of the Challenge is the Bbuilding of Stanford University from its earliest doubling of the number of bequest intentions known to days. The institution was founded through gifts and be- the university . The fact that planned gifts are a major quests from Jane and Leland Stanford, and generous focus of the campaign is a measure of the tremendous planned gifts from alumni and friends over the course impact such gifts will have on Stanford’s long-term vitality. of the ensuing century have helped to establish Stanford Bequests to Stanford, by their very nature, are about as one of the world’s top universities. developing and sustaining the university for the future. In October 2006, the spirit and hope that inspired Here are three stories of forward-looking alumni whose those gifts was renewed with the launch of The Stanford bequests have made and are making a significant differ - Challenge, a five-year campaign focused on seeking solu - ence in the lives and work of Stanford faculty and tions to complex global problems and educating the next students. O REMEMBER STANFORD Dudley Chambers, ’27, ENG ’28, with the Stanford branch of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, 1927 AN UNEXPECTED BEQUEST TO SCIENCE Dudley’s stepgrandson. “That’s really the kind of man AND ENGINEERING he was. Either one of those projects [Radio City Music Until his death in late 2005, Dudley Chambers, ’27, Hall or the Metropolitan Opera House] would have been ENG ’28, had made only one gift to Stanford: In 1955, he a career achievement for mere mortals. For Dudley, sent a check for $250 to the School of Engineering with I think they were just another job for GE.” a matching amount from his employer, General Electric. Dudley’s curiosity about new technologies spanned Dudley later indicated his intention to make a bequest, a lifetime: In his teenage years he experimented with so he was a member of Stanford’s Founding Grant ham radio, while decades later and well into his 90s, Society, but the university was completely unprepared he became an avid user of the Internet. for what Dudley had in mind. Stanford created a lasting impression on Dudley; When Dudley died a month short of his 100th birth - now his legacy will have a lasting impact on Stanford. day—outliving three wives—his gift of more than “Stanford gave me a chance,” he once told stepdaughter $51 million, consisting mainly of GE stock, became the Trish Thomson Herr, “and I want other prospective largest bequest ever received by Stanford. It established engineers to have the same.” an endowment committed to advancing “human knowl - edge and understanding in important areas of engineer - A G ROWING BEQUEST SUPPORTS ing technology and the natural sciences.” Income from SCHOLARSHIPS FOR WOMEN his gift will be used to provide faculty salaries, student When Sarah Comstock scholarships, and general support in these fields. graduated from Stanford in At Stanford, Dudley thrived as a student of the widely 1896, there were 45 women admired Frederick Emmons Terman, ’20, ENG ’22, students among the 176 then a young associate professor of electrical engineering, members of her class, who later became an influential provost at Stanford. and more than 90 percent Terman was a mentor to many other promising students, of those women went on to including William Hewlett, ’34, ENG ’39, and David become schoolteachers. Packard, ’34, ENG ’39. One hundred and one years After graduation, Dudley moved from California later, planned gifts like the to New York to begin a career at GE that would span one Sarah made on her death Sarah Comstock, Class of 1896 nearly 40 years. He was instrumental in setting up the in 1961 continue to provide a GE Engineering Laboratory and, in the 1930s, developed Stanford education to worthy students, male and female and managed the installation of the lighting console alike, and the career opportunities open to them are system for New York’s Radio City Music Hall. The con - limitless. sole remained in operation until just a few years ago Sarah’s bequest of approximately $28,000 endowed when the theater was renovated. a fund to help women students attend Stanford. Over “The last time I met him, about a month before the years, the Sarah Comstock Scholarship Fund has his death, he mentioned in a very offhand manner that incre ased astonishingly, due to the careful financial he’d also designed and overseen the lighting for the oversight of the Stanford Management Company and Metropolitan Opera in New York,” says Will Collier, its predecessor, the Treasurer’s Office. Today, Sarah’s O 2 CHARITABLE ESTATE PLANNING fund has grown to more than $470,000; since 1961, Roscoe’s passion. During his year at Stanford, he traveled 56 women students have been awarded Comstock with the football team to Portland, a trip he talked Scholarships. about often. Sarah majored in English at Stanford, demonstrating In 1917, Roscoe married Ann O’Day, a vaudeville her skill as a writer in her junior year when she authored actress who once shared a stage with Douglas Fairbanks, a farce titled Cat’s Cradle . She was also on the editorial Jr. The couple gave generously to Stanford when they were staff of the 1896 Stanford Quad. able. During the Depression, when Roscoe’s lumber busi - A few years after graduation, Sarah moved to ness was floundering, he worried about his inability to New York, where she began her career as a freelance help the school he loved. “Maybe someday,” he told his writer. Her fiction appeared in fashionable periodicals, wife, “I’ll be able to do something for Stanford.” such as Collier’s, Harper’s Magazine, and Good His business Housekeeping. In 1912, she published her first novel, flourished in the The Soddy, which described how early settlers built their following years. homes. Much of her writing examined social issues, He and his wife as did a 1932 article she penned for Good Housekeeping, enjoyed a comfort - titled “Marriage—or Career,” that discussed the difficul - able life in San ties women faced in balancing family and job. Francisco; they In 1926, Sarah and three members of her class com - would often drive piled and edited the Class of 1896 yearbook—the first down to Palo Alto of its kind for Stanford. Sarah wrote in the introduction, to attend Stanford Basketball in Maples Pavilion “If this volume in any measure expresses the class’s grati - football games. tude to the founders who built for us the walls which On his death in 1963, Roscoe was able to do something sheltered us, and the teachers who inspired us, then we for Stanford through a bequest in which he left the residue are, to the full, repaid.” of his estate (approximately $1.7 million) to the university, Alessa Johns, ’81, an English major like Sarah, to be held in trust with income to be paid to his widow until was one of the many recipients of the Comstock Scholar- she died. His gift to Stanford was unrestricted, meaning that ship. Her work at Stanford ultimately led to her joining no conditions were attached to its use. The university, look - the faculty at the University of California at Davis, ing for capital to help build a new basketball sta dium where she specializes in the literature and culture of and knowing Roscoe’s love 18th-century women writers. “Without that [scholarship] of athletics, thought of “Maybe someday, package, I don’t think I could have attended Stanford, using the future proceeds I’ll be able to and if I hadn’t attended Stanford, I’m not sure I would of his trust. At the time, do something have had this career,” she says. Stanford’s physical educa - tion facilities lagged far for Stanford.” AN UNRESTRICTED BEQUEST HELPED behind those of other — Roscoe Maples BUILD PAVILION universities. Could Roscoe Maples have imagined that more than With Ann’s approval, $1.2 million of the trust assets 40 years after making his bequest to Stanford, his name were earmarked in advance for the project, which cost would be familiar to thousands of Stanford students and a total of $3.3 million. The Roscoe Maples Pavilion alumni? Or that his gift would provide a vital campus opened in 1969 with a basketball game against Brigham venue for basketball, volleyball, badminton, intramural Young University. As soon as the first point was scored, athletics, and cultural events? the play was stopped and the ball presented as a souvenir Roscoe Maples was born into a wealthy lumber to the 88-year-old Ann. family in Klamath Falls, Oregon. Though he enrolled in Ann attended Stanford football and basketball games Stanford’s Class of 1904, Roscoe never graduated. An ill - into her mid-90s. She died in 1987 at the age of 106, at ness in the family forced him to return home at the end which time the proceeds of the Maples’ trust were released of his freshman year. Athletics, particularly football, was to Stanford. O 3 REMEMBER STANFORD GOOD COUNSEL obtain a beneficiary designation form from the adminis - trator of the retirement plan or your insurance company. BY CHRIS YATES, ’81 To name Stanford as the beneficiary of a bank or DIRECTOR OF PLANNED GIVING brokerage account at your death, you will need to s Doug Brown makes clear contact the institution and indicate that you wish your Ain his message [ opposite ], by account to include a POD (Pay on Death) feature.

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