Lifelong learning
Jacobs estate gift will enrich community, increase student opportunities
Russ and Vickie Jacobs
Russ and Vickie Jacobs know how important Washburn University is for students and the community. As faculty members, they have seen students enriched by academics and the community come together for lectures and other events, and senior citizens stay engaged through the tuition-free audit program.
“Those are all important to Washburn’s identity and part of why the community supports Washburn. For us, that’s very important,” said Russ, retired professor and chair of the philosophy department at Washburn.
The Jacobses' support for Washburn became everlasting with gifts in their estate creating a lecture series in philosophy and a scholarship for philosophy students.
“Our estate gifts are something that will live beyond us,” Russ said. “Charitable giving to Washburn was an obvious choice for our estate.”
They moved to Topeka in 1975 as Russ started at Washburn and Vickie worked at TARC in special education. She now teaches tai chi at Washburn.
“The main focus of my career was always the students,” Russ said. “Washburn is a teaching institution, and I was focused on doing the best I could for my students.”
Vickie enjoys teaching tai chi to degree-seeking students and auditors taking her class.
“We all work together, enjoy each other and enjoy the age difference between each other,” she said.
Russ has seen the value of the audit program allowing people 60 and older to take Washburn classes for free. A fellow retiree once told him he wouldn’t still be in Topeka if it weren’t for the program. Their lecture series will be a continuation of their devotion to lifelong learning. They want it to model the Thomas L. King Lecture in Religious Studies, which brings top scholars to Washburn every year.
“The King Lecture Series really seems to enrich the intellectual life not just in the department or in our students, but in the university and the community,” Russ said. “It’s the same interest I have in exposing students, faculty and community members to philosophy.”
Their scholarship will give students a chance to study philosophy with a few less barriers.
“I think anytime you can help a student who couldn’t normally go to school, it’s really important,” Vickie said.
Giving to Washburn has been a regular occasion for the Jacobses. Russ started giving each year during the Faculty/Staff Campaign. “I began to realize it was important for faculty members to give something to show they were concerned with Washburn beyond just the classroom,” he said.
If you are interested in making Washburn part of your legacy with a gift to an area important to you, contact Erin Aldridge at 785.670.4483 or PlannedGiving@wualumni.org.
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