Focus on Planned Giving
Legacy Society: Dan and Kathy Milligan
For Legacy Society members Dan Milligan, BA ’91, and Kathy Milligan, BA ’91 MBA ’95, their planned gift to UD will honor Kathy’s father, Charles T. Uhl, who had served UD’s IT Department and passed away after battling Alzheimer’s, and
also will recognize their shared love for the Rome Program, which transformed their
own lives.
Professor, Alumnus Provides Gift of a Lifetime for Future Doctoral Students
“I have had the strange experience of twice being a UD student, and so this university
has shaped my character and my life,” said UD alumnus and Associate Professor of English
Andrew Moran, BA ’91 PhD ’04. In his estate plan, Moran has generously provided for scholarships
benefiting literature students in UD’s Institute of Philosophic Studies, the doctorate-granting division of the Braniff Graduate School of Liberal Arts.
Alumnus, Former Rome Instructor Provides for Rome Scholarship in Estate Plan
Desiring to give back to the UD community, Jim Petzel, BA ’75, provided in his will for scholarships for students to go to Rome — those
who, like himself as a student, might not otherwise get to and who might not even
consider it due to the financial strain it would put on their families. Petzel’s estate
gift, The James Petzel Rome Semester Scholarship, will ensure that future students
can participate in the life-changing experience of the Rome Program.
Alumni Aim to Leave a Legacy of Transformation
From University of Dallas undergraduates to benefactors who have provided for the
university in their wills, Mike Perkins, BA ’78, and Sharon (Kapavik) Perkins, BA ’79 MA ’89, have a relationship with UD that has evolved over time, not unlike
that between children and parents: “Like one’s adult kids, we’ve come back home at
various intervals,” explained Sharon Perkins. “There’s a reason your university is
called your ‘alma mater’.”
Alumna, Retired Teacher Hopes to Make a Difference Through Education
Estelle (Tovar) Lara, BA ’67 MA ’74, has observed the impact of education in her own children’s lives
and feels that the only way to make a lasting difference for other people is through
education. As a public school teacher, she saw the difficult situations some of her
students and their families were in, and she knew that only through a strong education
would these children be able to lift themselves beyond those challenges in a significant
way. Therefore, about 10 years ago, she sat down with her financial advisor and wrote
the University of Dallas into her estate plan.
Alumna Hopes Her Gift Will Help Others Live Their Best Lives
Widowed at age 30, Joy (Davis) Kirsch, BA ’85, didn’t really know how to move forward. She was already a financial planner
and had worked with many widows, but she’d had no clue what it was like to go through
such a traumatic event. She realized that it was more than a technical business –
it was also a very personal one. Through her own experience, she was motivated to
change her focus to other clients who were going through life-changing events, specifically
widows. A similar motivation to help others live their best lives led Kirsch to the
decision to include UD in her estate plan.