A Gift Years in the Making

The Jeffersonville, Indiana, Census Bureau in 1965 was an unlikely setting for romance. However, it was here that Annabelle Lee Brewer began her first government job before retiring many years later from the Naval Ordnance Station as a civilian Contracting Officer.

Among the location's managers was Albert M. Woody Jr., an Army veteran who was transitioning back to civilian life. Annabelle was known for her award-winning typing speed, while Albert (affectionately known as "Woody") embraced speed in his love of hydroplane racing and sprint car races. Captivated by the young woman whom he spotted in the census office, Woody invited Annabelle to an Indianapolis car race.

"I turned it down," Annabelle says, "because I had another date that same day."

However, Woody was persistent, and a week later they had their first date, which ended with a drive around Southern Indiana's "Knobs," where she still lives.

To mark their first wedding anniversary, for which the traditional gift is paper, Annabelle made her first venture into the stock market when she contacted her husband's broker to purchase three shares of stock.

"They never amounted to anything," she says, "but that began a lifelong interest in investing and of watching patiently for the right time to buy, to sell or to gift."

Annabelle and Woody spent many fun weekends over the next 25 years at boat and sprint car races across the southeastern U.S. In 1993, Woody came home early from a Labor Day weekend race with what he thought was a sore throat. However, it was soon diagnosed as advanced lung cancer. Despite aggressive radiation and chemotherapy at the James Graham Brown Cancer Center (JGBCC), Woody passed away on Dec. 9 that same year.

"Navigating this new world of cancer was scary and lonely," Annabelle recalls, "but I remember with particular appreciation the compassion and kindness that Dr. Babe Jose, a radiation oncologist, showed to us during this emotional time."

In appreciation, in the years following Woody's passing, Annabelle established the Albert M. and Annabelle L. Woody Scholarship in Oncology to help residents in UofL's School of Medicine participate in national oncology meetings. To jumpstart this fund during her lifetime, Annabelle contacted UofL's Office for Estate and Gift Planning. Could she gift a mutual fund that she never intended to cash out and for which she didn't want to pay capital gains? Absolutely! Although the process often takes several weeks, this is a very tax-efficient way to give and an effective way to transfer an unused asset into a gift that is making a difference at UofL.

To learn more about gifting appreciated assets or including the University of Louisville in your estate plan, please contact Kathryn J. Sides, M.A., CFRE, CAP® at plannedgifts@louisville.edu or (502) 852-5051.