Scholarships memorialize loved ones.
Jeanette Otto enjoyed a 30-year career with the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, living in various U.S. and foreign locations including Port-au-Prince, Haiti and Juarez, Mexico. What turned out to be an incredible career had its beginnings at Kansas State University, where she earned degrees in Spanish education and biology in 1965.
At K-State, Jeanette met her first husband, the late Robert Fosmire, who earned degrees in electrical engineering and business administration in 1965.
When planning her legacy of philanthropic giving through her estate, K-State came to mind. Jeanette created a scholarship in the Department of Electrical Engineering to honor her late husband. She later created a second scholarship in the Department of Agriculture to honor her father, Earl Clark Coulter, who earned his degree at K-State decades earlier.
“K-State was such an important part of the lives of my first husband, my father and me,” Otto said. “My late husband, Bob Fosmire, died in a car accident very early in his life, and I thought the scholarship would be a fitting way to memorialize him. I repeated that plan when my father passed on.”
Otto has steadily funded her scholarships each year and will provide permanent funding by including K-State in her will. Such gifts are vital to the success of Innovation and Inspiration, the $1 billion campaign to advance K-State’s 2025 visionary plan. Furthermore, Otto’s scholarships are a unique way to honor loved ones while providing for the future of K-State students, many of whom have corresponded with her over the years.
“It’s been delightful to hear from them and to know it’s helping them achieve their educational goals,” she said. “It also continues my attachment to K-State.”
To learn more about providing similar support for K-State through your estate plan, please visit www.k-statelegacy.org or e-mail the gift planning department at giftoptions@ksufoundation.org.
