MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The son of a
West Virginia University alumnus is honoring his father's legacy as cattleman
and educator by making a planned gift to The Emery L. “Bud” Prunty Memorial Scholarship.
Tom Prunty recently named the WVU Foundation and his father's scholarship the beneficiary
of a life insurance policy as a planned gift.
The scholarship supports West Virginia residents enrolled in the
Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design and majoring in
animal and nutritional sciences.
Prunty hopes his gift will be an incentive for others to also invest in his father’s
passion of promoting agricultural education.
“We would love for a student to have a full scholarship. It would help generations
to come to focus on agriculture,” he said. “Agriculture was a big part of our life
growing up. My family and grandparents both raised cattle. It’s just something
that I was born and raised into.”
Bud Prunty was integral in starting the Wardensville Bull Test and helped coach livestock
judging teams. In 1959, he began his 32-year career with WVU Extension Service
as an agent. He was a man that truly led by example and was quiet about his accomplishments.
The Prunty family bleeds gold and blue. Bud was a second-generation Mountaineer;
Tom graduated from the Davis College, and his daughter, Mary, graduated in May
2017 with a degree in English.
Tom Prunty aspires to give back to the university as much as his father did as an
agricultural educator.
“The university is always near and dear to our hearts,” Tom Prunty said. “My dad
would have been smiling from ear to ear because giving back was important to him.”
The gift was made through the WVU Foundation, the nonprofit corporation that solicits
and administers private donations on behalf of the University.
-WVU-
hrm5/8/19
CONTACT: Andrew Barnes, Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design,
304-293-6962,
Andrew.barnes@mail.wvu.edu
Check
http://wvutoday.wvu.edu/ daily for the latest news from the University.
Follow @WVUToday on Twitter.