A Bequest in the Name of Education for All
“I’m a big believer in education,” says former Board Chair Jeremy Crigler ’79. “Throughout my career and through modest philanthropy, it has really been all about education and providing access for people who want to come to a place like Cardigan. And that’s why my wife and I have chosen to include Cardigan in our estate plans, through an outright bequest and a beneficiary designation from a retirement plan.”
If you had asked a young Jeremy whether or not he felt Cardigan would have a big impact on his life, he probably would have answered no. Jeremy’s father was appointed the U.S. Ambassador to Rwanda when he was still in middle school, so his parents gave him two choices for middle school—Aiglon College in Switzerland and Cardigan Mountain School in New Hampshire. Based on his impressions of two paper brochures of the schools, Jeremy chose Cardigan and showed up for his seventh-grade year in the fall of 1976. His parents never saw the School until graduation day.
“When I needed to get on a plane to go to Rwanda to see my parents,” says Jeremy, “it was somebody from the faculty taking me either to Logan or putting me on the bus in Hanover to go down to Logan and get on a plane to Paris, then on to Kigali. It was Mrs. Crowell who took me to get my braces and to help me buy my first winter coat. That was doable at a place like Cardigan because of the many dedicated faculty and staff that became my family. In that sense, Cardigan has not changed much in the last 40+ years.”
Jeremy graduated in 1979, moving on to Milton Academy and later Tulane and Duke. He didn’t give much thought to his Cardigan education. “I didn’t fully realize the impact Cardigan had on me and my outlook on life until long after I left and started raising my own family,” reflects Jeremy.
“Raising our daughters brought home a lot of the lessons that Jeremy learned while at Cardigan,” confirms his wife Pam. “And they weren’t coming from high school or college; they were from Cardigan.” Family meals were a part of their routine; life lessons included study skills, common courtesy, eye contact, a firm handshake, and above all, owning the consequences of your decisions. These lessons and many more were passed on to the next generation.
When Jeremy and Pam moved their young family to Connecticut, they were able to return to Cardigan more frequently. Jeremy joined the board in 2011 and took on the role of board chair from 2019 until 2021. Pam became an active member of the community as well. She understood the impact Cardigan had had on her husband, and later her family, and wanted to help. She saw an opportunity with the wives and families of alumni.
“I really wanted to find a way to encourage more spouses to come to campus just to experience Cardigan,” she explains. “I think some people see giving back to an institution as taking time and resources away from your family. I believe alumni owe it to themselves to visit campus with their spouses and families to let them see for themselves why it was such an important experience. In that context a long-term bequest, such as ours, is a recognition of the importance Cardigan has had on the entire family.”
While annual fund gifts to the School are also an important part of the Criglers’ giving, designating Cardigan as a beneficiary of one of their retirement accounts will have a long-term and lasting impact on the School. “Part of our thinking,” says Pam, “is that when you just have an annual fund, you’re living day to day. When you have a savings account, like an endowment, you can make better plans as an institution. Since the thing we care about most is making sure that students are able to attend Cardigan long into the future, regardless of their own financial situation, we have chosen to designate our planned gifts to support the financial aid endowment. That’s something that a school has to be able to provide—and continue to provide—year-in and year-out. And that’s what our gift will do.”
The Criglers’ estate plans will allow Cardigan to build its future endowment, an essential strategic priority for the next generation of Cardigan Cougars. It allows the School the freedom to invite a diverse and deserving student body to campus to learn and grow, regardless of any family’s financial situation. It will have an impact on countless boys long into the future.