Interview: Leslie ’67 and Larry Cook

Leslie, tell us about your Dickinson experience.

Leslie: I was searching for a small liberal arts college, and I needed scholarship support as well. The other two colleges I applied to didn’t offer me a scholarship like Dickinson did. Scholarship funding is why I ended up choosing Dickinson.

Dickinson was my first opportunity to be just me instead of part of a big family. I had a very domineering older sister, so finding a place where I could reach out and learn new things for myself was important to me. I came from a small town, and always valued education. Being able to be myself, grow, and learn about new things was one of my favorite outcomes from my time at Dickinson.

Can you speak to how Dickinson’s liberal-arts education helped you in your life?

Leslie: The breadth of knowledge to be gained from a liberal arts education went so much further than my high school education where I focused on the basics. Dickinson expanded my interests.

When I first arrived at Dickinson, I thought I would major in math. Math is “in the family” after all. I started my freshman year (2nd semester advance placement) and discovered that I wasn’t as smart as I thought.

I ended up following my interests and was an English major and fine arts minor. When I decided to go to graduate school, it was the fine arts part of my studies that motivated me. My English studies made me a strong writer, as I’ve always loved to write. When I went to look for jobs after school, I wasn’t worried about my background. I felt well prepared.

What inspired you both to make a planned gift to benefit Dickinson? What do you hope to do for your fellow Dickinsonians?

Larry: We have made plans for several organizations. We both come from frugal families, so early on Leslie and I made the decision to be mindful of saving so in the future we could give back. Three years after we married, while we were living in California, we attended a financial planning meeting and decided that we needed to talk to a trust attorney. That led us to establish the documents for a trust account.

We’ve changed the trust two times since then—every time we moved to a new state since each state had its own rules regarding trusts. Our latest move to Delaware resulted in yet another configuration.

Fortunately, we’ve always been of like mind in our relationship, and in our plans in life. We didn’t have children; it just happened that way. With both of us working and enjoying successful careers, we ended up with a better financial situation than we ever expected. So, we adopted an investment plan and started making a charitable plan for the future.

Leslie: Education has always been important to both of us. I have a soft spot for how our undergraduate degrees helped us grow as adults. College [Dickinson College and the University of New Hampshire for Larry] was a factor for us becoming good citizens.

Larry: There are organizations that we support right now with annual gifts and then, there are other organizations (like Dickinson) where we also have planned gifts. We want to make sure that when it’s time for our investment people to work with our estate administrator that our dollars go exactly where we want them to go.

Leslie: Living frugally and giving back is a way of life for us. We like to give outright gifts using qualified charitable distributions or QCDs. We ask ourselves, what can we do in the time remaining? We give to highly effective organizations and spend more time volunteering in our community.

Larry: We are thinking about accelerating the annual giving process because every time we make a gift, we smile. We likely won’t have that feeling when we are dead! So, we enjoy doing some of this now. We get a lot of requests for support, but we focus on which organizations will have the largest impact.

As an example, our recent conversations with Jenn Halpin at the Dickinson Farm helps strengthen our feeling that the college is doing what we think is right. The students, staff and community are involved in the work of the farm. It makes us feel that our annual gifts and our planned trust donation are a wise investment.

Why is it important to give back to the college?

Leslie: To assure that Dickinson is able to continue the good work that you are already doing. I want Dickinson to have the financial backing to maintain and grow as the fine institution that it is now. Dickinson can’t depend on just tuition and grants. To continue it needs the support of its alumni.

What is one piece of advice you would give to today’s students?

Leslie: Be open. Learn things you never thought you would. You are in an environment that supports new exploration and thought. Look forward to the challenges rather than just trying to finish something. It’s hard to think about it as the beginning of the rest of your life—but it really is. Be open to what Dickinson can present to you. Find out what the rest of your life may look like.