The Proctors recently made a transformational gift through the OU Foundation that includes a $7 million irrevocable contribution to the Department of Mathematics in the Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences. In recognition, the OU Board of Regents approved the naming of the David and Judi Proctor Department of Mathematics.

“Our financial success started after Judi and I got together,” Dave Proctor said. “When we got married, we did not have much money, but we worked together in partnership. She is largely responsible for that success.” They’ve now been married 42 years.

Dave was valedictorian at Seminole High School and was the Oklahoma school’s first National Merit Scholar. He earned a 1962 Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from OU and pursued a master’s degree at Stanford University. He worked in the aerospace and computer industries, serving in a number of executive positions with IBM. While there, he met Judi, who worked in marketing.

At IBM, Dave coded the lunar descent maneuvers for the Apollo 11 and Apollo 13 missions, and he and his team earned the Presidential Medal of Freedom for their efforts in navigating the safe return of the Apollo 13 astronauts.

In addition to the $7 million naming gift, the Proctors will be making a planned gift to create two new endowments in the Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences and the Weitzenhoffer Family College of Fine Arts. The gift will bridge the funding gap for students who receive the Oklahoma’s Promise scholarship through the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education. While Oklahoma’s Promise covers student tuition, their gift will cover fees, books, supplies, housing or other needs.

Their planned gift will also significantly increase existing scholarship endowments created in memory of their sons, David Michael Proctor and Matthew David Proctor, within the arts and sciences and the fine arts. The Proctors tragically lost both sons as young adults.

“Our son, Matthew, was a gifted artist, and my oldest son, David, was into computers and math,” Dave said. “The loss and hurt never go away, but we hope that these gifts will, in some way, help.”

“The most important thing for us is to get to meet and know recipients,” Judi added. “We treasure these relationships.”

One recipient is recent OU psychology graduate Aubrie Shinedling from Dallas. “I grew up without parental support,” she said. “Having been on my own from an early age, I worked multiple jobs, finding ways to support myself. But I was really struggling. One night I was studying and stressed about money. I received an email saying I had received a scholarship. That’s when I learned about the Proctors.”

Shinedling met the Proctors for dinner, and an instant connection was made. “Because of their generosity, I was able to concentrate on school, didn’t have to work and I graduated a year early.”

Since graduating in May, Shinedling has returned to the Dallas area, where she is working as a mental health case manager. Next, she plans to pursue her Ph.D. in counseling psychology.

“I really want to give back. I know there are other kids out there, too, who need to meet a generous stranger—like the Proctors.”

Cochran is an award-winning registered dietitian nutritionist (RDN) who works as a nutrition communications consultant in Dallas, Texas. In a world of fad diets and misleading internet articles, healthy eating can seem more confusing than ever. Cochran works to demystify nutrition by focusing on the facts of nutrition research, and her $1 million bequest to the OU College of Allied Health’s Nutritional Science program will pave the way for other RDNs to do the same.

Cochran’s mother grew up in the fourth generation of a farming/ranching family. While Cochran grew up cooking meals with her and taking four years of home economics in high school, she originally majored in math. But after taking a philosophy class called Elementary Logic, she realized that it wasn’t necessarily math that she loved – it was the logical problem-solving process used in both math and science.

“I discovered one of my sorority sisters was majoring in nutrition,” Cochran said. “I looked into it and learned it required a lot of science courses like physiology, chemistry and microbiology, but it related to something that is important for everybody: food and nutrition for good health.”

After graduating from OU with a degree in dietetics and nutrition, completing her dietetic internship, working in a hospital setting and teaching nutrition to dietetics and nursing students, she found her niche when she accepted a position at a local Dairy Council in the Dallas area. She soon realized that nutrition education was her passion, sparking a career of nutrition consulting and media appearances.

Cochran’s passion for nutrition education spurred her to establish the Mary Green Lovelace Scholarship, to which half of her $1 million bequest is going. The scholarship assists students in OU’s Department of Nutritional Science who aim to become registered dietitian nutritionists.

“My aunt, Mary Green Lovelace, died in 2016 at 95 years old,” Cochran said. “To honor her, my family’s five-generation farming and ranching legacy and the valuable role that farmers play in providing an abundant, safe and nutritious food supply, I named the scholarship after her.”

Each scholarship applicant must demonstrate their ability to communicate nutritional facts through a written essay, with a focus on the role of modern agriculture in providing a safe and nutrient-rich food supply. Cochran stays in touch with her scholarship recipients, and she has even precepted some of them as interns.

Cochran is also creating a research endowment for OU’s Nutritional Sciences Department. When it comes to healthy eating, it’s important to listen to the research-proven facts, and a research endowment can pave the way for new nutrition breakthroughs.

“The 2017 Global Burden of Disease Study of dietary consumption patterns in 195 countries, funded by the Gates Foundation, found that poor diet was responsible for 11 million deaths, with heart disease the leading cause, followed by cancer and diabetes,” Cochran said. “Nutrition and diet are essential components in the prevention of and treatment of these diseases. More registered dietitian nutritionists are needed to help patients, clients and consumers in a variety of settings to understand and implement dietary habits that will promote health.”

Neva encourages readers to give, even if the gifts are small. “Several years ago I heard a longtime dietitian leader and past Chair of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Foundation say, ‘Give until it feels good’ and ‘Give until you feel proud,’” Neva said. “Sometimes people believe if they can’t give ‘big’ then they shouldn’t give at all. Nothing could be further from the truth.”

Kelsey, a 2003 OU alumnus, is thinking about legacy at a younger age than many of his donor peers, but he’s not just working on supporting OU at some point far in the future – he’s ensuring his impact starts today. The James “Kelsey” Condley Scholarship Fund will financially support OU track and field athletes – particularly OU’s sprinters and hurdlers and/or track and field athletes from Tulsa and Oklahoma City public high schools. Kelsey is currently giving toward the fund to start supporting track and field athletes in his lifetime, but he has also stipulated that the fund can support Athletics after he and Melissa are one day gone.

Both Condleys are prioritizing giving back to local causes they’re passionate about; Melissa supports the Regional Food Bank. When Kelsey thought about opportunities for giving, OU track and field was a natural fit. Kelsey is a former public school teacher and track and field coach at Norman High, as well as a fan of OU athletics. “I wanted it to go to a smaller sport – I wanted an impact to be built there,” Kelsey said. “And I love the sport, I love the athletes. In my opinion, the best athletes in any sport are track and field athletes, particularly sprinters and hurdlers, so I wanted to show up for them.”

Kelsey and Melissa are public school graduates with children in the public school system, making support for a public institution a key priority for Kelsey. By combining planned giving with a gift he’s paying toward now, Kelsey hopes to ensure he’ll see the results of his support during his lifetime. “I personally wanted to see an impact while I was alive. I wanted my kids to see that giving back can have a positive impact,” Kelsey said. “I want (my kids) to grow up with the sense of ‘you have to give back to your community, back to other people, if you have the means.’”

Giving back at a relatively young age can be daunting, but Kelsey notes it’s okay to start small and build on your support as you go. You don’t have to start with a major planned gift – something simple can be the first goal. “The advice I would give would just be to start and get it going, and then once you can kind of see the impact that you’re creating, it becomes meaningful and becomes part of your life, and you enjoy doing it more and more – it kind of snowballs,” Kelsey concluded.