Mary Mougey: Gift Annuities "One of the Smartest Things I Ever Did"
By Dan Meyer, Director of Planned Giving
When visiting with Mary Mortensen Mougey '47, you can't help but see the traits of her ancestors—determined Danish pioneers that settled Nebraska—in the very active 93-year-old.
Mary came to Doane University, in part, because her father, Morton Mortensen '14, and mother, Besse Potter Mortensen '15, were Doane alumni.
Mary, who attended Doane during World War Two (when the school hosted the US Navy's V-5 and V-12 training programs), was older than many of her classmates. Previous to her arrival at Doane, she worked as an educator for six years, teaching in rural schools while attending Kearney State College.
After graduating from Doane with a degree in chemistry and her teaching endorsement, Mary headed west. On a whim, she walked into the office of the North Platte school superintendent and asked if there were any openings. While there were no vacancies for a chemistry instructor, there was one for a junior high math teacher. Mary accepted the job and taught in North Platte for two and a half years before moving to Japan for two years.
Mary married Alvin Mougey, who worked for the Union Pacific Railroad in North Platte, where they raised their three children: Vinton , Charles and Phyllis.
Mary has been a consistent, longtime financial supporter of Doane, with a major portion of her gifts coming in the form of charitable gift annuities. The gift annuities provide Mary with quarterly, tax-preferred payments, as well as an income tax deduction. The corpus of Mary's gift annuities will be split posthumously between two previously endowed scholarships.
Recently, Mary looked back on her decision to establish gift annuities and shared how important the financial security has been to her.
"Those gift annuities were one of the smartest things I ever did," Mary says. "I created three of those annuities during the time the stock market was falling and interest rates were beginning their downslide. The annuity payments has been just what was needed as I moved from living in my own home to the assisted living circumstance I am in now."
Charitable gift annuities are an excellent way to support Doane and provide yourself or a loved one with fixed payments for life. They are simple to put in place and may provide an excellent source of income tax benefits.
To learn more and receive a personalized illustration of how a gift annuity can benefit you, contact Thom Reeves at 402.826.8284 or thomas.reeves@doane.edu today.