Author to leave his estate to IU

Robert James Waller, the author of The Bridges of Madison County, recently announced his intent to give an estate gift worth well over $1million to IU, his alma mater. The exact dollar amount of the gift has not been released.\nWaller designated the money to four major areas: the School of Music, the Kelley School of Business, the University Libraries and the Research and University Graduate School.\nIn a recent Indiana Alumni Magazine article, Waller said the monetary gift was about giving back to IU.\n"Some 30 years out, the old emotions are still there, the sense of warmth and gratitude I felt all those years ago and still feel toward IU as an institution," Waller said.\nWaller earned his Ph.D. from the School of Business in 1968 and has since become a best-selling author. He has also established a formidable career as a musician and photographer.\n"With this generous gift, IU is enriched not only by his gratitude for his graduate years at the School of Business but also by his enduring appreciation of music, literature and research," President Myles Brand said in a press release.\nRick Dupree, executive director of development for the School of Business, said Waller appreciated his time at IU.\n"He feels as though he owes it to IU for having helped him accomplish what he wants, kind of a payback," Dupree said.\n"(Waller) was very open about what the doctorate program had enabled him to do," Dupree added.\nTom Herbert, the IU Foundation's director of Planned Giving Services, said the University signed a gift agreement authorizing several commitments upon receipt of the gift, including a bequest to the Kelley School of Business to eventually name the courtyard in the Corporate and Graduate Center in honor of Waller. In addition, a bequest to the School of Music will eventually endow the Robert J. Waller Sr. and Robert J. Waller Jr. Chair in jazz studies. The Research and University Graduate School will also receive a bequest of Waller's ranch in Texas for use in preservation and research in ecological studies.\n"Dr. Waller is an incredibly talented and generous individual," said Herbert, who is in charge of fulfilling the monetary divisions of the gift.\nIn the last fiscal year, the Foundation raised and received $109.1 million, donated by more than 100,000 people like Waller.\nHerbert said Waller met with deans from all the schools and University Libraries and other IU administrators when he began planning the gift earlier this fall.\n"Dr. Waller, his attorneys, myself and other committed IU and IUF people worked carefully together over many months to pull this together," Herbert said. "The truth is that this gift was the result of a lot of hard work and collaboration by a lot of people over many months. The support IU receives from its alumni and friends are what allow the institution to be truly outstanding because the dollars are there to get the best faculty and equipment"