With the impact of a down economy, the Wichita State University Foundation still completed its fiscal year as one of its best years in the foundation’s history, receiving more than $23 million. In addition, a total of more than $7 million of pledge commitments were received.

In all, 11,881 individuals, 1,133 corporations/organizations and 108 foundations/trusts contributed to the foundation from July 1, 2008, through June 30, 2009.

Highlights of the year include:

• Gifts to WSU’s Advanced Education in General Dentistry facility included commitments from Delta Dental of Kansas, Delta Dental of Kansas Foundation, the Walter S. and Evan C. Jones Testamentary Trust, Wichita Community Foundation and the Fidelity Bank Foundation, totaling more than $3 million in cash and pledges.

• The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation approved a grant for $2 million, to be paid over the next five years, for Project Lead The Way, a pre-engineering curriculum and teacher training program for middle and high school students.
 
• Bequests received totaled nearly $8 million.
 
• Twenty-one endowed scholarships and two fellowships were established at $15,000 or more each.

• Nearly $6 million was received for athletics, fueled by the emphasis on the baseball indoor practice facility.

• The Annual Fund for Excellence, a direct-mail and telephone campaign, raised $441,600, which will provide unrestricted support to WSU’s six colleges and University Libraries for the 2009-10 academic year.

• Forty-one new planned gift expectancies were established with a face value of more than $2.5 million.

James W. Buck Jr. Estate

James W. Buck Jr., who was co-owner with his brother, John, of Buck’s Department Store in Wichita, died Aug. 12, 2008. The WSU portion of his estate, which is managed by the Bank of America Trust Department, will be directed to the James and Catherine Buck Charitable Trust, named in memory of his parents.

“Of the almost $8 million received from bequests this year, the James Buck estate gift made up more than $5.5 million,” said King.

Buck’s brother, John, who died in 2004, also requested that the WSU portion of his estate be directed to their parents’ trust.

“They were not twin brothers by age, but they were like twins in a certain sense that they did many things together including the plan to have similar estates,” said Wilson Baldridge, WSU associate professor in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages.

Together the Buck brothers have made a substantial impact on WSU. James Buck’s charitable trust funds undergraduate scholarships in education, aerospace engineering, fine arts and business. A portion of his estate, like his brother’s, will be used to support and enrich the WSU French program, as directed by Baldridge.