LARAMIE -- The value of the University of Wyoming's endowment grew by 22 percent to $253.3 million in 2009, according to figures provided by UW Foundation President Ben Blalock on Thursday.
That figure was still $36 million below the value of the endowment at the end of 2007. UW's endowment declined from $289 million to $207 million during the market downturn in late 2008. A similar decline was experienced by Harvard University, which has the nation's largest college endowment.
UW Foundation Treasurer Mary Ann Garman said Thursday that a report for the first quarter of this year has not yet been completed.
Earlier Thursday, Blalock explained UW's planned giving program during a board of trustees meeting at the UW Conference Center. Blalock emphasized the importance of bequests from estates, which made up seven of the top 10 charitable gifts in the U.S. in 2007, according to Slate magazine and the Chronicle of Philanthropy.
Blalock said that bequests amounted to $11.64 billion of the $15.78 billion total of the top 61 gifts in America.
Blalock's presentation included special mention of five "remarkable" planned gifts to UW, starting with the William Robertson Coe bequest of 12 percent of his estate in 1955, which was used to build the Coe Library and School of American Studies.
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In 1962, Clifford Sundin's estate established a scholarship program for deserving and needy students from Rawlins. That bequest has provided $962,099 to students from Rawlins since 2005, and the current market value of the fund is $3.2 million.
In 1974, Charles Chacey Kuehn bequeathed to UW a gift currently valued at $4.2 million for the American Studies program and the College of Agriculture.
The largest estate gift to date was from Frederick and Clara Toppan, who were supporters of UW since 1965. When Mrs. Toppan died in 2001, she bequeathed her ranch near Wilson to UW, and its sale realized $17.5 million that supports a variety of programs across the campus, Blalock said.
Already in 2010, Blalock said, UW has received substantial planned gifts from the estates of former Gov. and U.S. Sen. Clifford Hansen, from Casper businessman Tom Stroock, and from the Donald W. "Bill" Campbell estate.
Campbell was born and raised in Midwest and worked for Amoco Oil all over the world before retiring in Midwest and Edgerton. He moved to Laramie in 1988 and attended nearly all of UW's football and basketball games until his death, according to Josh Rebholz of the Cowboy Joe Club.
