Statement for Bob and Penny Swanson

Stout has been a part of each of our lives since we enrolled in the 1940s. Our student years were a real joy for us, and provided each of us with an outstanding education. We never would have guessed then, that Stout would become an even greater part of our lives.

Bob finished his Master's degree, and then we were very pleased when he joined the faculty. Over the years, he finished his doctorate at Minnesota, and moved up to positions in the department, then became Dean, and finally assumed the Chancellor's position when Bud Micheels retired. We were both honored to serve our alma mater throughout our entire working lives.

We raised our four children in Menomonie, and watched two of them finish their degrees at Stout. Even after we retired, our interactions with Stout, and the people we had worked shoulder-to-shoulder with for so many years, have been a real joy to us.

It was only fitting then, that we seek to give back to this wonderful university in as many ways as we could, including making plans in our estate to provide a significant gift to carry on the legacy of our wonderful relationship with Stout. We established an insurance policy with the Stout University Foundation as the beneficiary some years ago. Each year we make the annual premium payment-which is income tax deductible-knowing that we are ultimately creating an endowment to assure future Stout students the same outstanding education we enjoyed, and helped provide when we served the university.

It has been a very easy thing to do for us, and provides us with great satisfaction, knowing we can help other students who will come to Stout for their education as we did almost 70 years ago.

Robert S. Swanson '49 (10/3/1924- 1/27/2013)
Margaret "Penny" Swanson '48 (3/17/1926-7/11/2016)