"Quiet Man" Leaves Resounding Legacy

Margaret "Peg" McKechnie has never been to Rider University, but she plans to do something very generous for future generations of Rider students.

McKechnie has made provisions in her estate plans to create the Donald McKechnie '35 Accounting Endowed Scholarship. Named in honor of her late father, the scholarship will provide substantial support, in perpetuity, to undergraduate accounting majors.

Deep gratitude and a clear recognition of education's profound importance are motivating her to make this planned gift.

"Mother died when I was 13 and my sister was 9. Suddenly, Dad was a single parent raising two girls," McKechnie says. "This was in the 1950s, when widowers working full-time and being great parents were few and far between. So the scholarship is a wonderful way to honor my father's life and to thank him for taking such good care of my sister and me."

Donald McKechnie: Dedicated and Disciplined
Donald McKechnie was born in Bayonne, N.J., in 1908, and he called Bayonne his home until he graduated from Rider in 1935. His parents immigrated to the United States from Scotland, where the standards of modern professional accounting originated, so perhaps the Scottish penchant for economics and commerce influenced him.

After graduating from Rider with a degree in accounting, he joined Hooker Chemical Corporation, advancing through a series of positions in locations throughout the United States until he retired in the early 1970s.

Despite his very busy professional life, McKechnie always made considerable time for his children and grandchildren. He also made time for disciplined personal investing based on his study of financial markets.

Combining his devotion to his family with his expertise in accounting and finance, this "very quiet man," as his oldest daughter describes him, organized his estate so that he could continue to provide for his daughters long after he was gone.

"Continuity and Connection" Between Generations
Ms. McKechnie says that legacies from her father as well as from an aunt and uncle have "enabled me to do things I never thought I would be able to do."

Noting how she, like her father, remained with one company throughout her career and focused on finance (banking, in her case), McKechnie says she likes the sense of "continuity and connection" that such intergenerational patterns often create.

"Endowing the Rider scholarship in my father's name is especially meaningful," she says, "not just because my dad was so important to me, but also because education was so important to him, and it remains so important to me. If the Donald McKechnie Scholarship enables students-students like the one my father once was-to earn a degree at Rider University and, thus, prepare for productive careers-that will be more than enough reward for me."

Honor a Loved One
Making a planned gift to Rider University to honor the memory of loved ones is an ideal way to ensure their legacy will live on for generations.

To learn more about how you can establish an endowed scholarship or another memorial gift, please contact Ryan W. Baumuller, CFP® at 609-896-5233 or rbaumuller@rider.edu.