Leona Hine

Leona, a retired banker from Binghamton, is a wildlife artist, children's book author and self-described lifelong learner. The first female Red Cross instructor in the nation, Hine has continued a lifelong tradition of serving her community by endowing a scholarship at Binghamton University and supporting the University Art Museum. Recently, she made a major planned gift that will help Binghamton continue its tradition of affordable, excellent public higher education. The University, she says, "brings in people, brings in culture and helps to boost our economy, too."

Aldo Bernardo and Reta Bernardo

"It's an investment in something we helped to build, and it gives us something back in turn," said Aldo Bernardo, a distinguished service professor emeritus of Italian and comparative literature, and chair of the Humanities Department at Harpur College from 1959 to 1967. Bernardo and his wife, Reta Bernardo, dedicate their gift annuity to the Aldo Bernardo Fund, an endowment for BU's Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, which he founded "It allows you to give assets while increasing your income," added Reta Bernardo, who obtained her doctoral degree in French at Harpur.

Gertrude Stein

The late Gertrude Stein bequeathed a charitable trust that will endow scholarships for Broome County students in financial need. Stein and her husband, the late English and literature professor William Stein, had befriended and mentored many talented graduate students during their time in Binghamton. "They were generous to a fault," said Ted Billy '74, '77, a professor at Saint Mary's College in Indiana who met the Steins while working on his dissertation at BU. "She understood the value of education," said Gertrude's niece, Marion Giaimo of Virginia.