Living Legacy
Last year, Sallie Brown lost her husband, Paul, after 49 years of marriage.
Paul and Sallie first met in Connecticut in 1955 while living on opposite sides of New Haven and dating other people. The man she was engaged to left to serve for the National Guard and entrusted Paul with her care during his absence. The chemistry between Paul and Sallie grew and the rest is history.
Sallie was a teacher and Paul was a process engineer when they got married in 1957. The opportunity to run a ski lodge together in Vermont turned into a 30-year stay before the Browns relocated to Sun Lakes in 2001. After running the ski lodge for five years, Paul opened a restaurant and Sallie returned to teaching and then became a substance abuse educational specialist.
Paul and Sallie raised two children: a son, Sam, who lives in Casa Grande and a daughter, Wendy, who lives in Cape Cod, where Sallie spends her summers.
Paul and Sallie enjoyed being active community members.
For Sallie, her history of volunteering--from running a blood bank to hospital pediatrics-- was fostered by her parents and has carried through to her own children. Despite recovering from three surgeries in nine of the last 12 months, she is still an active member of the Casa Grande Alliance and Sun Lakes Crown Rotary and looks forward to getting more involved.
For Paul, among his proudest accomplishments was seeing the Sun Lakes library open in October 2004. He was chairman of the Library Community Foundation--the committee that raised the necessary funds for the project, which was completed without using tax dollars.
Paul had planned on helping the CHW Foundation – East Valley next, but passed away before getting a chance to start that effort. He saw Chandler Regional Medical Center as a growing institution and took a particular interest in helping to ensure adequate funding for its nursing staff.
Sallie decided to take up Paul's charge, and with the Foundation staff's guidance, designated a charitable gift annuity (CGA) in his honor. A CGA allows donors to convert a highly appreciated asset into lifetime income, reducing income taxes with a charitable income tax deduction, and reducing or eliminating estate taxes.
In April 2006, Sallie funded her CGA to the Foundation with a gift of appreciated stock, which not only enabled her to name a room on the 4th floor in Paul's honor, but also realize a savings from capital gains taxes.
"Those of us who have time and resources to give back are very lucky," Sallie said. "We're lucky to be living in America where we have the freedom to do what we want and live the way we want. Because we're more fortunate than a lot of other people in the world, we need to give back some of our good fortune."
And that's exactly what Paul and Sallie Brown have been generous enough to do. By sharing some of their good fortune with the CHW Foundation – East Valley, they've given back to the many that will benefit from improved care at Chandler Regional Medical Center.
