PLEASANT GROVE — A dairy farmer who never took vacations but loved to read has passed on that passion to the city library through a trust funded by the sale of his farm.
LaMont G. Blackhurst died at age 80 in April 2003.
"My dad read a lot. He was never a learned man, he was never able to go to college. He just knew that he wanted to leave something to help someone else," said his daughter, Marilyn Patch.
Blackhurst created a charitable trust fund with the money he earned from selling his 32-acre farm. His family recently gave the city a $120,000 donation from that trust fund to be used for the Pleasant Grove Library, one of four organizations where he specifically wanted the money to go. It's the largest donation the library has ever received.
The money will be used to help fund a new 60,000-square-foot library that the city just hired an architectural firm to design. The library board has been trying to raise funds for the library, which will cost about $5 million to build, for at least the past six years — without much success.
Before the Blackhurst donation, the library had brought in about $20,000 in all six years combined. The library knew that the Blackhursts would be donating but didn't know how much until it was presented about a week ago, said Julie Bellon, library board chair.
April Harrison, library director, said the library has had lesser donations but never that much money. Harrison said the Blackhursts have been "stalwarts in the community."
"It's just so exciting to have them appreciate the value of the library in the community," she said.
Patch said her parents didn't know the library was looking for donations when they set up the trust fund a few years ago. The money couldn't be disbursed until both Blackhurst and his wife, Reva A. Blackhurst, passed away. Patch said her mother unexpectedly died at age 76 in December.
Harrison said the meeting where Patch presented the money was tender. Many people were crying, and the City Council, mayor and others gave Patch a standing ovation.
Blackhurst also donated money to Brigham Young University's College of Humanities and the BYU men's track team at Brigham Young University, the agricultural science department at Utah State University and the University of Utah kidney research foundation.
Patch said it was only fitting that her parents passed on what they had when they died. She said they used to grow pumpkins, corn and other foods and gave them to the widows and other residents of the community.
"They didn't have a lot of material things, but what they had, they shared," Patch said.