Donor Stories
Janet and Bill Dosch - Leave a Legacy of Love, Compassion and Generosity
Janet and Bill Dosch have been serving and encouraging young people all their lives. Both graduated from Bellevue (KY) High School in 1952 prior to enrolling at Eastern Kentucky University, where they began dating and married. Both completed successful careers in education while raising two daughters who are also Eastern graduates and successful educators in their own right.
The Dosches’ love and compassion for young people did not end with retirement. By including EKU in their estate plans, the Dosches are members of EKU’s Legacy Society. Their bequest will fund the Dosch Family Scholarship Endowment, ensuring that future generations of young people from Bellevue will have opportunities to fulfill the same kinds of hopes and dreams that EKU afforded Janet and Bill.
“I found my life at EKU – my husband, my family, my friends, everything,” Janet says. “Eastern prepared us extremely well, not just from an academic perspective, but also socially. We were fortunate to have a caring faculty who understood students and their needs.”
“Eastern has been a big part of our lives,” says Bill, who has served as president of the EKU Alumni Association. “Our love for Eastern will continue as we share our memories together. Because of this, we wanted to give back to this special place that has given us so much.”
Through their careful estate planning, the Dosches are embracing future EKU students-young people who sometimes need to know there are people who believe in them. Eastern is thankful for special people who see needs and give from their hearts. The Dosches’ gift exemplifies love, compassion and generosity.
Dr. Amy King - A Win- Win Situation
Dr. Amy King was born in Wyoming and grew up on a farm in central Missouri. She began teaching mathematics at EKU in 1972, shortly after completing her Ph.D. at the University of Kentucky. She retired in 1998 but still remains active in students’ lives.
As a professor, Dr. King took particular interest in her students. “I have always felt that Eastern kids were very special,” she says. “I still stay in contact with many of them, and a number of them are on my Christmas list.”
When asked what she remembers most about her students, she says, “EKU students are kind and thoughtful. They take time to talk with their professors. You do not find that at a lot of places. I remember at one of my calculus finals, a student, who later completed graduate work in engineering, got up very early, turned in his paper and left. I noticed that he had not taken the cupcake I always furnished my students after their finals. I went after him with a cupcake and asked why he had left so early. It was then we realized that he hadn’t completed the second page of the final. If it hadn’t been for the cupcake, he would have flunked. From then on, I always told my students that they could never say they didn’t get anything from my class. At least they always got a cupcake.”
Dr. King is still providing support for her “Eastern Kids.” She says, “I have always heard that you should ‘cast your bread upon water’. I have never forgotten how a scholarship I received as a student greatly assisted me. I know that many EKU students struggle financially, and I wanted to help them as much as possible. For this reason, I have established a number of charitable gift annuities with Eastern. I planned to give to Eastern anyway at a future time, so I find this is a good way to do it now while I can enjoy seeing the benefits it provides. And charitable annuities with Eastern provide income for life at a much better interest rate that you can otherwise receive. It is a win-win situation.”
Mary Jean Giltner - Increased our Income, avoided capital gains tax and obtained a tax deduction
“My late husband, Ray, and I really wanted to do something special to support our alma mater, but we were concerned about protecting our retirement resources. We owned some bank stock that had increased in value but was not paying much dividend. We decided to create a Charitable Remainder Unitrust with the stock and stipulated that the trust pay 6% of its value to us each year. We actually increased our income, avoided paying capital gains tax on the stock, and received a tax deduction in the year the Trust was created. At the end of my lifetime, the Trust will be dissolved and the remaining principal will go to the EKU Foundation to support Eastern’s educational mission.”
Ray served as president of the EKU National Alumni Association twice and Mary Jean continues in a leadership role on campus as a member of the EKU Foundation Board of Directors. Eastern has been a significant part of the Giltners’ lives for nearly 60 years. Two daughters, a son-in law and a grandson have all attended Eastern.
Bequest |
For questions or additional, Bill Melton |
Please click here for the Honor Roll of Eastern Legacy Society Members
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