By Phil Murphy, Planned Giving Consultant

“A first-rate institution needs first-rate graduates.”

So says Robert J. Riddell, Jr., GTU board member since 1981. That bedrock belief underlies his past, present, and future gift plans. “I have the GTU in my will, but I've been shifting appreciated stock out of my estate to a GTU endowment fund for financial aid to merit scholars. I'm not waiting until I die to do that.”

A retired research physicist at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Riddell feels that financial support of talented students is essential to the GTU's mission. “The GTU was founded to allow seminaries which could not support doctoral programs on their own to do so together,” he said.

Drawing from its member seminaries and a few independent scholars, the GTU has forged a core doctoral faculty that has raised theological studies to a new level in the Western states, he said. “Even our title, ‘Graduate Theological Union,’ assumes a doctoral program.”

The physical symbol of the GTU's mission is its library, he added. “A common library is more efficient, diverse, and accessible to all. But the GTU's doctoral faculty is as important as the library. A lot of faculty might not be around if not for doctoral students, and top students might not choose to study here but for the doctoral program and diversity of the GTU.”

Though his current and future planned contributions of stock and other assets support advanced studies, his interests are as much ecumenical as academic. “I'm personally interested in the GTU because of its interdenominational character,” he said. “Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish students learning from each other with opportunities for study of Asian religions broadens everyone's knowledge. We can understand each other a lot better that way.”

Citing his own religious beliefs, he added: “Early Christianity, at least, had unity, not division, as an ideal. I believe we're all in this together.”

The GTU is honored to enroll Robert J. and Kathryn Riddell as members of its Legacy Circle.

For information on the GTU Legacy Circle, charitable bequests, gifts of stock, and the tax and income advantages of charitable trusts, please call Jane E. Whitfield, Vice President for Advancement, at 510/649-2425.