A Blended Gift Benefits Christian Education

Willene Tarry Braun (PSCE ’51) dedicated her life to mentoring and educating others. And through a bequest she continues to do so. During her rewarding work as a Christian education director and subsequent career as a personnel consultant, Willene invested thoughtfully and was a careful steward of her wealth. She established a trust naming the Presbyterian School of Christian Education as a major beneficiary of her estate. She asked that her legacy gift be used to endow a Christian Education Chair honoring her parents.

In 2014 when Union celebrated the centennial of its Richmond campus, alumni, friends and faculty worked together to fund a professorship honoring beloved professor Sara P. Little. Willene Braun’s $1.4-million gift joined this effort and created the Sara P. Little and Eugene Lewis and Willene Asbury Tarry Chair of Christian Education.

When it’s difficult to make an impact on an organization through a single gift, blending that gift with those of others allows a donor to be part of something significant.