2009 was a difficult year for families and companies around the globe. Unfortunately, the  Foundation’s investments were not immune to the stock market’s decline. Many OSU donors also suffered at the hands of a global recession. But some donors epitomized an intrepid spirit by seeing the unstable economy and selflessly considered what it meant for OSU students.

Ask current students how they were affected by the tumultuous economy and they tell stories of parents struggling to make ends meet while the students themselves had trouble finding a job or even losing their own money in the stock market. For some, it seemed prudent to stay in school, going further into debt to pursue a master’s rather than beginning a career in an uncertain market. Others turned down study-abroad opportunities or cut back on their course load because funding from parents, scholarships or employment dwindled.

For some, a little extra help was the difference between continuing college and dropping out because of funding shortfalls. Three donors who redirected their focus from their own portfolios to OSU’s needs were Bryan Close, James Cobb and LaVerna Cobb.

Close is a 1966 hotel restaurant administration graduate and president of CloseBend Inc., a Tulsa company that manufactures welding fittings for the process piping of petro-chemical industries.. Among his many gifts to the university is the Pat Moreo Distinguished Graduate Fellowship. Because it was “underwater” – its endowment having fallen below market value – it would not be able to pay its standard $2,200 to a recipient this year. Close paid the $2,000 difference to keep the fellowship going.

“The young scholarship recipients have nothing to do with the economic turndown,” Close said. “That was beyond their control. Why should they be punished? It just makes sense, and was relatively easy, to simply fund whatever was going to be distributed.”

He added that there are always areas on which to spend money, but he wants to make a difference.

“I could spend money all day long,” he added. “I could have a real good time. I have everything I need and a lot of things I don’t need. But at some point you have to understand that others need help. The way I look at it is these students ultimately will be the givers, but they have to reach a point in their lives to become a giver.

“When I’m dead and gone, they might say a lot of things about me, but if they say, ‘He really had a good time and he helped me,’ that’s all I can hope for.”

The Cobbs also have several endowments, among them the James D. and LaVerna L. Cobb Scholarship, which would not be able to fund its typical $1,500 civil engineering scholarship due to market losses last year.  So the Oklahoma City couple chose to donate that money.

Jim earned a civil engineering degree in 1959 and followed that with a master’s in 1960. He married LaVerna Hart during his time at OSU, which increased his Korean War veteran’s G.I. Bill payments from $110 per month to $135. He was integral to the 1964 founding of what is now called the OSU POSSE, the athletic department’s fundraising organization. He also bought the family business, Cobb Engineering Company, in 1971. After more than a quarter-century running the business, James has assembled a staff of 84 people, including 26 OSU students and alumni. But that is far from his only contribution to the future of those who pursue their education in Stillwater. Between the couple’s and the company’s endowments, they are awarding more than $10,000 in scholarships this year.

“I just kind of made a promise to myself when I graduated 50 years ago that if I ever had anything I was going to come back and try to help some other kids because I had an opportunity,” he said. “I want to support kids so they might have the same opportunity.”

LaVerna said they knew the cause was still there when the economy was plummeting.

“For the student who receives that scholarship, life has to go on,” she said. “We’re just glad we could help, because they are our future.”

Donors like Close and the Cobbs exhibit resolute fearlessness and selflessness in the face of economic uncertainty, and the beneficiaries are not just the students on their scholarships but everyone those students eventually impact.