Profiles in Giving
Giving to Carolina with heart - and mind
Mary Morrow
Retirement plan assets
"I don't care how many times I come in here, I always feel a thrill. I love books, and I love the Library."
So says Mary Morrow MA '50, long-time friend of the Academic Affairs Library and volunteer extraordinaire.
In the early 1980s Mary Morrow and her husband Charles, then University provost, helped raise money for the brand-new Library endowment. When Charles died in 1989, Mary established in his memory an unrestricted endowment fund to benefit the Library. And after Mary's retirement in 1994 from her job as mathematician on a medical research team, she stepped right into a volunteer job at the Library helping to track its endowment funds and how the income is spent.
Now she has made the Library part of her estate plan in a smart, tax-wise way.
Mary Morrow has designated the John Charles Morrow Endowment for the Library as the beneficiary of her tax-deferred IRA, to which she contributed throughout her working years. Why leave to the Library her IRA assets instead of another asset from her estate?
Taxes. After her death, the combination of estate tax and income taxes due on her IRA is expected to reduce the value of those IRA assets to 25 cents on the dollar or less, if she leaves them to her children.
But by designating the IRA assets to benefit Carolina, which is a tax-exempt organization, 100 cents on the dollar will go to her beloved Library. There will be no tax. (She plans to leave her children other assets that won't be taxed nearly as much.)
Giving tax-deferred retirement plans at death -- IRAs, Keoghs, 401(k)s and 403(b)s -- can make sense for people who want to benefit Carolina and who don't need their retirement-plan assets to provide for their children.
Judge a person not by what he accomplishes, but by what he overcomes.'
Lindian Swaim
Charitable Gift Annuity
Lindian J. Swaim Sr. of Durham spent 36 years as a special agent in the FBI. Now in retirement, the 86-year-old has a new mission, helping students who have overcome significant obstacles to attend college.
"One of my favorite quotes is by Abraham Lincoln: 'Judge a person not by what he accomplishes, but by what he overcomes,'" Swaim said. "I envision that the applicants for this scholarship will have persevered in order to get to college, and that's the kind of person I want to help."
The scholarship will be funded with the proceeds from three charitable gift annuities. During his lifetime, the annuities will provide an additional source of income to Mr. Swaim. At this death, the remainder will be used to create his scholarship.
In addition to assisting deserving students, Swaim has given preference for the scholarship to children or grandchildren of retired special agents of the FBI. "The caliber of the agents I worked with and their dedication to the security of this nation mean a lot to me," Swaim said. "I wanted to lend a helping hand to any of their children or grandchildren who want to attend Carolina."
Thrifty Alumnus gives big to CarolinaBequest
Tom Morris '52 is thrifty. And he's earmarked many of the pennies he's saved-nearly four million dollars' worth-for a planned gift to Carolina. The Thomas R. Morris Endowment Fund will provide scholarships for students with physical disabilities who are pursuing degrees in public health, dentistry, nursing and medicine.
Morris lost his vision when he was injured serving as a medical officer in the Korean War. "Having worked as long as I did in army hospitals, I am totally committed to helping those who want to work in the field of health care," he said. "I also know what it is like to be handicapped and feel it is my calling to help students in this way."
Although Morris' thriftiness began out of necessity - he grew up the son of poor tobacco farmers in Wayne County, N.C.- it's a habit he's kept all his life. He sold bibles door-to-door to pay for college, and he made ends meet in graduate school by selling cemetery plots in the evenings.
After Korea, Morris practiced optometry and dabbled in the stock market and real estate. He saved 50 cents for every dollar he earned, putting 25 cents into the stock market and 25 cents into real estate. He retired in 1975 at age 45.
Although his eyesight continued to deteriorate, he set out to fulfill his dream of seeing the world. He went on eight around-the-world trips, visiting 157 countries. His Wilmington home is a museum of souvenirs - rare books, oriental curios, jewelry. With his gift to UNC, Morris hopes to solidify others' dreams.
It’s never too early (or too late) to plan a gift to Carolina
John and Kristen Stephenson
Bequest (contingent)
Dr. John Stephenson ’89, an Atlanta anesthesiologist, and his wife Kristen recently did something not many 30-somethings do: they made their wills. And, in a surprising move for people so early in their careers, they also remembered the School of Medicine with a bequest to the Medical Foundation. And they did it in the way best suited to their age and family situation.
The Stephensons' wills primarily protect their family: Their wills name guardians for the Stephenson children, and John’s will is structured to maximize the tax benefits of transferring property to his wife, or, if he and she both die, of creating a trust for their children.
The Medical Foundation, Dr. Stephenson says, receives a share of his estate "only if we’re all wiped out." That’s the contingency - and it makes perfect sense for a 36-year-old father who needs his assets to support a growing family. When his children are older, he says, he can update his will and make a direct bequest. For now, his contingent bequest is appropriate.
John Stephenson, originally from Rockingham, N. C., says "I always thought a lot of Carolina growing up." But when it came time for him to choose a college, he couldn’t refuse the scholarship Wake Forest University offered. Ultimately he did find his way back to Chapel Hill for medical school, and he now works at Saint Joseph’s Hospital of Atlanta. When Dr. Stephenson agreed to chair the 10th reunion organizing committee for his medical school class campaign, he did more than make his annual gift to the Loyalty Fund - he put Carolina in his will.
The moral of this story? It’s never too early to make an estate plan that provides for your loved ones and includes UNC. The emotional and financial advantages of planning a gift are great. And the satisfaction can’t be beat.
Christopher and Barbara Fordham
Charitable remainder unitrust
"We gave out of passion for the University, for the medical school and the hospital, for patient care and for social justice."
Christopher Fordham spent his career serving Carolina - as a professor, dean, vice chancellor and chancellor. Now he and his wife Barbara have extended that legacy with a planned gift to the University.
They established the Fordham Fund for Diversity in Health Professions because they want to help increase the number of minority doctors available to treat minority patients.
"Our gift aims to provide better care for the underprivileged and under-represented," Fordham said.
The gift is a charitable remainder trust which generates income for the Fordhams during their lifetimes. After their deaths, the remainder will form an endowed fund that will be used to recruit more minority doctoral students.
Tar Heels' thoughts turn to home
Pooled Income Fund
Like a lot of Tar Heels, J.R. and Louise Parker took the long road home.
J.R. Parker '38 of New Bern enrolled in one of the last classes at Carolina to offer engineering. To help pay his way, he tutored freshmen in math up above the old bookstore in the YMCA Building. After serving as a bomber pilot in World War II, J.R signed on with the Fluor Corp. as a project engineer and became a corporate nomad. With Louise, his wife, who'd grown up in Goldsboro, J.R. went wherever Fluor needed his expertise in building oil refineries -- Venezuela and Mexico, Belgium and Iran, Sardinia and West Pakistan.
And whenever the Parkers had some vacation time, they flew their own floatplane to a remote lakeside cabin in northern Canada. After traveling all over the world, the Parkers took the road toward home, settling in a house on the Neuse River near New Bern.
But J.R. and Louise Parker kept their ties with Carolina, following Tar Heel athletics from whatever corner of the world they lived in. "Our hearts have been with the University," Louise says. "It was the center of our activities."
J.R. died in March 2002 and left Louise to continue their life-long love and support of the University. But the story doesn't end there. Because of the plans they'd made during J.R.'s lifetime, Carolina will also continue to play a part in Louise's life.
Over the years, the Parkers made several gifts of highly appreciated stock to the University's pooled income fund. In exchange for their gifts, they jointly received quarterly income, based on the performance of the fund their gifts are invested in. Now, Louise receives the entire income payment, insuring that she'll be well taken care of financially. By giving low-yielding, highly-appreciated stock to the pooled income fund, J.R. and Louise Parker actually increased their income and avoided tax on the capital gain. Above all, the Parkers had the satisfaction of knowing that at the end of their lives, their gifts would go into the Class of 1938 Special Fund, a student support fund, and into their professorship fund, just as they directed.
In addition, the Parkers made a bequest in their wills that will fund the John R. and Louise S. Parker Distinguished Professorship Endowment Trust Fund in mathematics, physics, or computer science. The Parkers felt that the excellence of Carolina's faculty will be maintained only if alumni and friends add their support to what the legislature provides.
The Parkers gave because of their love for Carolina, and their gifts helped in their financial planning, too.
"The University was our
life -- and still is."
Combination of outright and planned gifts
Few donors have ever received more pleasure at seeing their gifts at work than UNC-CH professors emeriti Charles and Shirley Weiss. Using an imaginative combination of gift annuities, outright cash gifts and their wills, the Weisses created the interdisciplinary Urban Livability Program at Carolina, which includes a symposium, graduate fellowships, a resident scholar and ongoing book purchases.
The Weisses also have started separate endowments for the many UNC-CH departments and units that are dear to their hearts, including those where they taught: the Department of City and Regional Planning in the College of Arts and Sciences (Shirley Weiss) and the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering in the School of Public Health (Charles Weiss).
Ultimately, their gifts to Carolina will exceed $1 million. In the meantime, the Weisses have the satisfaction of knowing that their gift annuities provide lifetime income for a family member.
Michael and Joan Brown take the lead with a trust that puts Carolina first
Michael Brown's gift to Carolina brought him more than satisfaction.
"I had a feeling of celebration and achievement," he said. "I was very happy - and I was told that it showed."
Retiring as senior vice president of marketing after 27 years at The Lowe's Companies, Brown '54 and his wife, Joan, wanted to make a gift that would benefit the University and their three children during their lifetimes. They chose a charitable lead trust, established with a transfer of Lowe's securities, that pays income to Carolina for five years before transferring the assets to their children with only a portion subject to taxes . Income from the securities - approximately $200,000 a year - goes to The Michael D. and Joan C. Brown Expendable Fund, which provides the chancellor with funds to use where the need is greatest.
"I had assets that could go to charitable purposes, and I began to think about how I wanted to use the money - especially if it could benefit my family sooner rather than later," Brown said. "I'm a believer in estate planning - particularly if you have assets with a very low cost basis and low dividend rate."
In addition to the lead trust, the Browns also established a charitable remainder trust in 1997 that pays them income during their lifetimes and transfers the trust's assets to Carolina after their deaths.
Financial benefits weren't the primary reason they chose to give.
"Carolina has been close to my heart for a long time," Brown said. "It's a beautiful campus full of happy memories for me. Over the years, we have also developed warm friendships with people who work for the University. I heard Chancellor Moeser speak at a Charlotte alumni gathering and was impressed with the man and what he could do for Carolina. We also wanted to contribute to the success of Carolina First fund raising."
