MARSHFIELD, WI (WSAU-WDLB) -- Several Marshfield institutions are benefitting from sizable contributions from a local man’s estate.
Richard Kohl has left nearly five-million dollars in charitable gifts which will benefit future medical research, future high school students and a local Catholic parish.
Kohl, who passed away earlier this year, has left a nearly five-million dollar legacy gift to three organizations—the Marshfield Clinic Research Institute, the Columbus Education Foundation and Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church.
Dr. Amit Acharya told WDLB Kohl’s contribution of one-point-seven million dollars to the Research Institute will allow the Clinic to hire additional researchers to conduct more research projects in a number of key areas of study. "It's going to be around trauma research. Especially in rural America in our neck of the woods, there's a lot of trauma-related incidents coming to our health system. Another area of research that we are really looking at is precision medicine."
Meanwhile, Kohl’s contribution to the Columbus Education Foundation totals two-point-five million dollars. Columbus President David Eaton says the gift will help build infrastructure that will serve students for many years to come. "For as long as there is a Columbus Catholic Schools, Dick Kohl is going to be having a hand in our work. And then more directly for our students, which were a concern of his. He left a pretty sizable bequest to the education foundation scholarship fund."
Eaton says Kohl was not a former Columbus student. In fact, his graduation pre-dates Columbus High School. He was a founding member of Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church and has also left 735-thousand dollars for the O-L-P Parish. "Just how much of his estate he devoted to our foundation, that's the part that was surprising. Of all the opportunities that he had for charitable giving, for 50% of his estate to come to the Columbus Education Foundation, that really is stunning."
Eaton says Kohl has contributed to Columbus High School before, assisting in refurbishing youth football fields and adding new bleachers and a new concession stand. He was also a major contributor to the new Ken and JoEllen Heiman Science Labs at Columbus High School as well. And his contributions are recognized with the addition of his name on the new gymnasium floor at Columbus High School.
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