Larry and Maureen Gamble

In January, Larry and Maureen Gamble, of Overland Park, Kansas, worked with the MSU Alumni Foundation to expand their bequest in support of the University. In addition to supporting the Library's Trout and Salmonid Collection, they also wished to establish scholarship for students in the Jake Jabs College of Business and Entrepreneurship.

Recently, Larry and Maureen were asked to share their story of how they became connected to Montana State University, and why supporting the University is important to them. Here is their story, in Larry 's words:

"My first interaction with Montana State came when I read about the Bud Lilly Trout and Salmonid Collection in one of the trout fishing magazines. I had heard of Montana State before while playing golf with Jan Stenerud, one of your most famous alums. (He is in the NFL Hall of Fame.) Anyway, I thought the collection was a great idea and sent them $75, I believe. By that time, we were coming to Bozeman every summer, and enjoyed walking on your beautiful campus in the mornings.

Shortly after I sent in that contribution, I received a phone call from a student thanking me for supporting MSU. She was a very nice young lady, and I was impressed that the school followed up like that even for a small gift.

Over the years, we continued to make contributions, and were contacted by Jane Howard from the MSU Alumni Foundation. Again, we were pleased to know that people at MSU really seemed to care about what we were doing.

Jane kept in touch, and a couple of summers ago, we were given a tour of the collection. Wow! It is really something. We met Kenning Arlitsch, the Dean of the Library, and James Thull, the Special Collections Librarian, at that time. Jane kept telling us more and more about MSU and we were really impressed.

At that same time walking on the campus gave us a feel for the student body, and we loved it. What nice people choose to go there. We decided to do more and established a planned gift for the Collection.

As a business graduate, I became curious about your College of Business. Again, we really liked what we saw, a great Dean, Dr. Kregg Aytes, and a meaningful curriculum. We decided to establish a planned gift for scholarships in the College of Business.

I guess to sum it up, the more we knew about MSU, the more we liked it. The people — students, Deans, and Alumni Foundation staff — resonated with us. We look forward to visiting your beautiful campus each year and learning new things about MSU."