Lenell

When Bruce Lenell (B.S., ’80, physics) and his wife Elizabeth (B.S., ’80, journalism) began their estate plan, they reached out to the UW Foundation with a simple question: How should they list UW as a beneficiary? Behind that practical question was a remarkable act of generosity and trust.

Bruce’s UW physics degree launched a distinguished career. After earning a master’s in physics from the University of Colorado at Boulder, he went on to lead research and development at Northrop Grumman. There, he worked in signal processing and remote sensing. He often served as the bridge between engineers, mathematicians, scientists, and business leaders.

Elizabeth pursued journalism because of a broad interest in the world. While at UW, she worked for the AlumnNews magazine and had an internship at Popular Mechanics in New York. These positions, as well as a life with horses, ultimately led to the managing editorship for the Arabian Horse Association. After a 20-plus-year career in journalism, she pursued graduate school. She holds doctorates from the University of Colorado at Boulder in cognitive science and educational psychology and has completed coursework for a doctorate in psycholinguistics.

Today, the Arvada, Colorado couple share a love of making things by hand—Bruce works in glass, and Elizabeth works in metal and beads.

The Lenells have named UW a beneficiary of their accounts for a future major gift. They also made an unusual choice. Rather than designate the gift for a specific purpose, they asked that it go generally to UW to be used wherever it is needed most.

That flexibility is invaluable. Needs and opportunities change over time, and an undesignated gift lets the university respond to them, whether that means supporting students, strengthening faculty, or seizing an opportunity no one can yet foresee.

“Three generations of my family are graduates of UW,” Elizabeth says. “I was actually born in the old Ivinson Hospital, where the UW Police Department is now. My folks were both students at the time, and my father (Frank Bonds) is in the Cowboy Football Hall of Fame. UW is a great place to discover opportunities that lead to interesting lives and careers. At heart, I’ll probably always be a Cowboy, although I’ve traded riding horses for seahorses!”

The Lenells’ legacy is generosity paired with confidence in UW’s future.