Donor Spotlight
Smith Family Legacy Gift
When her mom, Elizabeth, and dad, Tim, moved to Rohnert Park with Megan Smith in 1985 there were certainly no plans for two-year old Megan to attend Sonoma State University (SSU) . Both Elizabeth (B.S.) and Tim (J.D.) had graduated from the University of Illinois in 1978, with Tim having completed his B.A. at DePaul University in 1974. Their family moved to California from Illinois with State Farm, both working at its now closed Rohnert Park regional office.
By 1988, Tim had established his own legal and financial services practice when he met Jim Meyer, SSU’s Vice President of Development at that time. The outcome of their conversation involving the University’s value to future generations was a unique estate gift, the first for SSU’s Nichols Legacy Society.
Tim and Elizabeth bequeathed a life insurance policy for Megan to the University, together with providing contributions to pay premiums sufficient to fund the amount of the gift. Tim and Jim kept in touch over the years as Megan went to school in Rohnert Park, graduating from Rancho Cotate High School in 2002.
Megan completed her first year of college as a Banana Slug at the University of California – Santa Cruz, then decided that a transferred to SSU to meet her academic goals. Meanwhile, in addition to his legal career, Tim had several university adjunct teaching positions, including SSU, and became involved in public service, serving as the Rohnert Park-Cotati Library Advisory Board Chair, then on the Rohnert Park City Council. So that in 2006 as Megan graduated from SSU with a B.A. in Sociology, Tim was the Mayor of Rohnert Park!
After graduation from Sonoma State, Megan earned her teaching credential at Dominican University in 2008 and taught at Novato High School for many years. Now she is an executive assistant at the Chicago-based nonprofit CASEL – Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning. Education is her passion.
This past summer, Tim and Megan were together in Chicago. During that time they decided to designate her life insurance policy gift to the Green Music Center. Both expressed a particular interest in supporting the Green Music Center’s arts integration activities on campus and want to ensure that K-12 children in our area continue to have access to live performances.
Pictured above at Wrigley Field’s Bruce Springsteen concert on August 9, 2023, Father Tim and daughter Megan Smith plan on enjoying performances at the Green Music Center whenever they are together in Rohnert Park!
