Personal Giving Stories
George and Maggie Phillips Use $1 Million Charitable Gift Annuity to Benefit the College of Pharmacy, School of Nursing
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To find a time when George Phillips, BSPharm'39, MS'50, has not been involved in the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy, you'd need to go back more than 70 years to when he was still a high school student in the small town of Sinclairville, N.Y. Even then, he was under the Michigan spell, spun by his father, Elmer A. Phillips, third-generation owner of Phillips Drug Store in Sinclairville, who earned a two-year pharmaceutical chemist degree from Michigan in 1899.
"I came to Michigan because my father had studied here," says Phillips. "The plan was for me to follow my father into the family business started by my great-grandfather (Zardus Phillips). So I received my degree and returned to New York thinking retail. That's when I got a call from one of my former professors with the news that Harvey A. K. Whitney wanted to interview me for a job at U-M Hospital. [Whitney was the legendary chief pharmacist at U-M Hospital during the 1930s and 1940s, and first chairman of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists - both positions Phillips would also eventually fill.]
"I came back to Ann Arbor, had the interview, and got the job [as a pharmacy intern under Whitney]," Phillips explains. "It was almost a miracle how it all played out for me at Michigan."
That job was the beginning of a highly successful, 34-year career for Phillips: from pharmacy intern to master pharmacist to assistant director and, from 1963 to 1973, as director of pharmacy services at U-M Hospital.
"I got an excellent education at Michigan, and the people I met here as a student, and afterwards, opened doors to opportunities that probably would not have opened if I'd gone somewhere else."
In repayment, Phillips has been a steadfast supporter of the College for more than 65 years, serving as the first president of the Pharmacy Alumni Society Board of Governors; a charter member of the Prescott Circle Giving Society; a faculty member; a leading voice on many College fund-drive initiatives, from telethons to major capital campaigns; a member of the College's Dean's Advisory Committee; a consistent, generous donor; and, always, a resolute ambassador for his beloved College.
Now, George and his wife, Maggie, have added a new dimension to their giving with their recent decision to split a $1 million gift between the College of Pharmacy and the School of Nursing, Maggie's alma mater. The gift was made as a Charitable Gift Annuity.
"The annuity offered a guaranteed income to Maggie and me, a fair return on our investment, and the knowledge that our money would ultimately go to the College when we pass on," Phillips says. "Another strong point of an annuity is that it reduces income and estate tax obligations, which benefits your heirs. I understand that not everyone can make a $1 million pledge. But you don't have to. You can buy an annuity though Michigan for a minimum investment of $10,000. That's within reach of most U-M College of Pharmacy alumni. You owe it to yourself to take a good, hard look."
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