Planned gift from Mary Evans Stowell Thompson to benefit students

Judith Kearney
ASME Foundation

Mary Evans Stowell Thompson, one of the founding members of the Archimedes Club, left the ASME Foundation one of the largest gifts it has received to date in order to establish a scholarship fund in her husband's name to benefit mechanical engineering students.

The ASME Foundation was saddened to learn about the passing of Mrs. Thompson on Dec. 22, 2006. She was the widow of Willis F. Thompson, who at his death was chairman of the board of Westcott & Mapes, a prestigious engineering firm in New Haven, Conn. Mr. Thompson, an ASME Fellow and Honorary Member, was instrumental in the conception and development of the United Engineering Center at the United Nations Plaza on East 47th Street in New York City, the former home of ASME.

Mrs. Thompson's bequest was for an initial sum of $300,000. Her generous legacy will live on as an endowment and will benefit young engineers of the future in perpetuity as they pursue their educations in engineering.

A 1936 graduate of Pembroke College at Brown University, Mrs. Stowell was a champion tennis player. Her first jobs out of college were at the Second National Bank of New Haven, Conn., and then in the office of G & O Mfg. Co., where she volunteered evenings to work in the factory section during World War II. Like her future husband, she was also employed at Westcott & Mapes, beginning in 1945 as a secretary, and working her way up to secretary treasurer, the position she held until her retirement in 1976.

A vice president of ASME from 1951 to 1955, Mr. Thompson was active in Region 1 and with the New Haven Section, also serving on a number of national committees. To acknowledge his lifelong love of engineering and his strong commitment to ASME, Mrs. Thompson included a provision in her will to establish the Willis F. Thompson Memorial Scholarship Fund to be used for financial aid to students of mechanical engineering, with preference given to students who demonstrate an interest in the development of power generation.

Gifts by way of bequests are the most popular form of planned gifts. In fact, approximately 70 percent of all planned gifts are provisions made in an individual's will. This is a wonderful way to create a legacy, as Mrs. Thompson has done, whether it be to honor a loved one, or simply to give back to the mechanical engineering community with the assurance that your gift will keep on giving and help make our world a better place for all.

For more information on how you, too, can create a legacy by naming the Foundation in your will and become a member of the Archimedes Club, contact Judith Kearney at (212) 591-7445 or at kearneyj@asme.org.

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