A note stuffed into a file 26 years ago proved to be a clue that led to a $250,000 gift to Utah State University's engineering department.
The donation, the largest ever for the department, will be used to establish the Harold V. Peterson Student Aid Fund, which will provide full-tuition scholarships to 15 undergraduate students in engineering.Thomas L. Allen, USU executive director of development, said the new-found money will specifically be earmarked for students studying water resources development.
"The whole thing is strange," said Robert Davis, the engineering department's industrial-relations director. He found the memo after assuming his job in 1987.
The note, dated in 1965, mentioned a $50.25 donation from a Harold V. Peterson in Menlo Park, Calif. Curious about the lack of information, Davis set out to learn more.
An address led him to Peterson's widow, Mary Elsie Peterson.
Mrs. Peterson said her husband was a water specialist with the U.S. Geological Survey in California who had earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in geology from USU in 1917 and 1929.
Before he died in 1968, he entrusted all his assets and half of his Menlo Park home to his alma mater. The inheritance was to remain in a trust until the death of Mrs. Peterson, who earned a bachelor's degree in English at USU.
Mrs. Peterson, 91, died in August 1990.
Davis is unsure where the $50.25 figure in the memo came from or why nobody contacted the Petersons for 22 years.