Roswell Couple Remembers ENMU with Over $625,000 in Estate Gifts

By Noelle Bartl

“We had to borrow money to even get married back in 1943,” said the late Roy Isler in 2007, “but it is the fine faculty and administrators at ENMU who we owe so much gratitude to over all these years.”

The 1957 ENMU graduate and his wife, Leona Isler, of Roswell, N.M., are remembered fondly by the ENMU staff and the ENMU Foundation Board of Directors because of their longtime friendship and generosity. Roy passed away Jan. 27, 2010, at the age of 89, and Leona passed away Aug. 24, 2010, at the age of 88.

In recent years, the couple established three charitable gift annuities with the ENMU Foundation. These annuities plus their estate gifts provided ENMU with over $625,000 for the Reid Allen Isler Memorial Scholarship and the Starter Scholarship Fund. Roy and Leona adamantly believed over the years that, “It was simply our time to give back.”

Their only son, Reid Allen Isler, was killed in the line of duty on May 18, 1968, in South Vietnam. Reid, a corpsman, was rendering assistance to a wounded Marine under heavy fire. He was posthumously honored with a Bronze Star for his heroic actions.

It was in 1972 that the couple decided that their commitment to education was so strong that they would include ENMU as the sole beneficiary of their estate to establish the Reid Allen Isler Memorial Scholarship Fund for education, fine arts and pre-med students.

I was fortunate to meet Roy and Leona ten years ago,” remembers Noelle Bartl, director of the ENMU Foundation. “They became like family and provided friendly, and sometimes humorous, parenting advice as I was raising our young daughters. They are missed dearly.”

Although war took their only child, Roy and Leona liked being included in the lives of Roy’s nieces and nephews, friends and celebrated their babies. They went on to turn that worst pain into a blessing for generations of young people to come. They took their sorrow and loss and made good out of it by establishing the scholarship. Reid’s spirit is kept alive as his dream was to become a psychiatrist.

Charitable gift annuities start at $10,000 and traditionally provide better interest rates than certificates of deposit. Charitable gift annuities are guaranteed for life, offer significant tax benefits and an opportunity to make a charitable gift to the ENMU Foundation.

For more information on charitable gift annuities or including the ENMU Foundation in your estate plans, call Noelle Bartl at 888-291-5524.