Donor Stories

William N. Beck

William N. Beck graduated from Fresno State in 1952 with a degree in business. He went on to great success in wine marketing, helping the California wine industry's expansion by acquainting people with wine in a variety of ways during the 1960s and '70s.

After visiting the campus in 2006, he took a special interest in helping to establish the Bulldog Pride Scholarship Fund. His enthusiastic advice helped build the Bulldog Pride Scholarship Fund rapidly, and it awarded its first three scholarships in 2007. These competitive scholarships are presented each year by the Fresno State Alumni Association.

Mr. Beck wanted to make as big a difference as he could in our students' lives by generously sharing some of what his Fresno State education helped him earn. Upon his death in 2007, we learned that he had left a $100,000 bequest to be added to the Bulldog Pride Scholarship Fund. It is the largest single gift to an alumni association scholarship endowment at any of the California State University's 23 campuses. As an endowed scholarship, Bill Beck's legacy will encourage Fresno State students to embrace the concept of "Bulldog Pride" forever.

Col. Edwin J. Cook

This retired Air Force colonel attended Fresno State in the 1940s. This remarkable man served in the Army and Navy, earning the rank of colonel in the Air Force. Col. Cook wanted to honor his first wife, Lindy, an Air Force flight nurse who died from exposure to Agent Orange through contact with wounded soldiers coming from the war zone in Vietnam.

He established an endowment to provide forgivable scholarship loans to students in Fresno State's Nursing Program. Annual loans will be forgiven if the student spends two years as a nurse serving in the U.S. military, assisting veterans or helping with Native American populations.

His gifts to the endowment were modest during his lifetime. He died at age 84 on May 7, 2009 and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors. His last will and testament and family trust revealed that he had left his entire estate to the endowment. The Colonel Edwin J. Cook and Elvira E Lindholm Cook Endowed Student Loan/Scholarship Fund now exceeds $1 million and will help nursing students for generations to come.

Alpheda Knorr

Alpheda "Alphie" Knorr was a surgical nurse in Fresno who never attended Fresno State. No one is even sure if she ever visited the campus. We do know that for many years she worked side-by-side for many years with other professional nurses who had earned their degrees at Fresno State.

She died in 2008 with no surviving family. She left a simple will stating that she wanted to leave a gift of $15,000 to her best friend, with the remainder of her modest estate to benefit nursing students at Fresno State. Her friends said, "She just wanted to do something to help the nurses that will follow her into the profession."

Her gift exceeded $250,000 and will create the new Alpheda Knorr Nursing Simulation Laboratory. This state-of-the-art facility will allow students to practice their nursing skills using high-tech mannequins in a controlled and monitored environment resembling a hospital room. Cameras will capture the demonstrations and allow realistic lessons to be viewed simultaneously in "smart classrooms" throughout the Nursing Department. Professors will later be able to review the sessions privately with each student to help fine-tune their skills.

Pete Beiden

Pete Beiden is a legend in collegiate baseball. Fresno State's stadium is named after the former Bulldog, who guided Fresno State to 600 baseball wins in 21 seasons from 1948 to 1969. Beiden was inducted into the College Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1972 and was later honored with a 7-foot statue outside the third base entrance to the campus ballpark. Before his death in 2000, Beiden and his wife, Martha, established two endowments that now provide annual scholarships for baseball student-athletes and funds for the continual improvement and upgrading of the stadium itself. Combined, the two endowments have grown to about $150,000 over the past 20 years.

We welcome your story

Sharing the reasons why you chose to include Fresno State in your estate plan will help show others the benefits of investing in the future of higher education in the Central Valley. Give us a call or send us your story along with your contact information (and photo, if desired) to:

Steve Spriggs
Director of Planned Giving
5244 North Jackson Ave. KC45
Fresno, CA 93740-8023
559.278.8337  |  Email