How My IRA Helped Support Pace Students’ Entrepreneurial Spirit

By Donald Ehrgott ’50

I am a proud member of the Pace University alumni community, having graduated from Pace College as a student of the Class of 1950. My years at Pace were filled with hard work and a desire to improve upon the modest upbringing my family could provide during the Depression and its aftermath. Fortunately, my Pace education was funded by the GI Bill after I served in the Navy.

Pace provided the foundation for me to help build a successful family business, and to become a wise investor over the years. The entrepreneurial spirit continues in our family, as my sons manage their own successful business, and my other children or their spouses either have their own, or work for, small businesses.

Almost 70 years after graduating from Pace, my gratitude and appreciation continues. Although I've been contributing to Pace for decades, I decided to increase my financial support with the help of the IRA charitable rollover provisions of the tax code. My IRA rollover helped me establish an endowed scholarship fund for a deserving Pace student. With my experience building a small business, I was pleased to establish a scholarship to assist students enrolled in Pace's Entrepreneurship Program within the Lubin School of Business at Pace University.

I had the pleasure of meeting the first student to receive the Donald A. Ehrgott and Ruby Ehrgott Endowed Scholarship. I am pleased to have had the opportunity to benefit Pace students with an IRA charitable rollover. I would encourage anyone considering supporting Pace to leverage the tax benefits of an IRA charitable rollover this year.

You, too, can support students in the programs and departments you’re passionate about at Pace through your estate plan. To learn more, contact Marc Potolsky at mpotolsky@pace.edu or 212-346-1619.