Winfough Estates’ $2.8 million gift helps CFAES

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The estates of Geraldine and Arthur Winfough Jr. have committed a $2.8 million gift to the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences in memory of the Mount Sterling, Ohio couple.

“The generosity of the Winfoughs illustrates the impact that our friends can have on the future,” Dean Bruce A. McPheron said.

The gift will be used to kick-start construction of the CFAES library, Student Success Center and administrative offices. The gift also will establish three new endowments to the college:

The Geraldine and Arthur Winfough Jr. Scholarship Fund will support undergraduate students as part of the Pat and Bobby Moser Scholars Program with four-year scholarships for one or more students, with a preference given to those from Pickaway County, Ohio.

The Geraldine and Arthur Winfough Jr. Fund for STEM Education in Pickaway County will support science, technology, engineering and math education programs administered by Ohio State University Extension in Pickaway County in partnership with primary and secondary schools there.

The Geraldine and Arthur Winfough Jr. Fund for Pickaway County Extension Education will help provide professional development to Extension educators based in Pickaway County.

“While Mr. and Mrs. Winfough were not directly connected with our college during their lifetimes, their bequest will ensure that Pickaway County and all of Ohio continue to grow as an agricultural powerhouse,” McPheron said.

The couple had no children of their own, but they shared a “deep love of the land and of the agricultural community,” said former Ohio State Board of Trustees Chair Shirley Dunlap Bowser.

Arthur Winfough Jr. was “a big-hearted-man known for his prize herd of cattle,” she said. Geraldine Winfough owned and operated a general store.

“Once you’re a farmer, you want to give back,” Bowser said. “It is just wonderful that the final outcome of their generosity will go to the agriculture community.”

The Winfough estates donated 387 acres of Pickaway County farmland, which was accepted recently by the Ohio State Board of Trustees. Proceeds from the sale of that property will fund the endowments and the Student Success Center project, a renovation of the library and administrative offices at the Agricultural Administration Building on Fyffe Road.

McPheron added that “this gift will allow us to focus on the highest needs of the college. We’ll support students, both through scholarship opportunities and through the creation of an amazing new learning space that starts to bring Ohio State’s agricultural facilities into the 21st century.” 

More information about this donation and others to the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences can be found at http://cfaes.osu.edu/development.

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