Join the Friends of the Presidents!

E stablished in 1966, the Friends of the Presidents Society recognizes the College’s most generous donors, who set an example of leadership in annual giving (the gift level for membership is $2,000, with a sliding scale of lower levels for the most recent classes). Meet an alumna who established a scholarship with her FOP donation

Education has always been a priority for Pamela White Wagner ’61. After Skidmore, she took her sociology degree and minor in elementary education to the Boston suburbs, where she began teaching third grade in public schools. With a deep appreciation for her Skidmore education, Wagner joined the Boston alumni club and, after moving to the Philadelphia area in 1965, became president of the Philadelphia club. She also became a class agent and fundraising leader.

After working on her twenty-fifth reunion committee, Wagner became class president, helping her fund chairs and agents raise money for the Annual Fund. She also got involved in the Parents Council when daughter Wendy Leighton ’87 attended Skidmore. At its thirtieth reunion, in 1991, Wagner’s class broke the giving record for a thirtieth reunion and won the President’s Award for Overall Achievement.

A longtime donor at the Friends of the Presidents level, Wagner served as FOP chair for her class’s thirty-fifth reunion, encouraging classmates to take their giving to the next level. Indeed annual contributions play an increasingly crucial role at Skidmore as the demand for student aid increases. And Wagner has done her part: for the past couple of years she has given at the $10,000 level because that’s the amount required for an annual-fund scholarship to enable a student in need to attend Skidmore. “Supporting scholarships has been important to me,” she says. “What greater gift can we give future generations than that of education?” As she tells her classmates, “Those who have the wherewithal to do so should give back to the school that gave us so much.”

Now retired, Wagner and husband Bill split their time between their home near Philadelphia and their Adirondack-style home in Keene Valley, N.Y. But others have taken up her calling: daughters Kristine and Wendy have both been teachers, and son Christopher volunteers at a school near his home.

And this year Wagner and classmates are aiming to break some fortieth-reunion giving records: they hope to raise $200,000 for the Annual Fund plus another $200,000 to name the grand staircase in the Tang Museum for their late classmate Frances Young Tang ’61. And in years to come, Wagner says, she’ll continue to support FOP and other fundraising initiatives because, as she insists, education is a priority.