Autumn Fields Farrar

Making a difference by: honoring four generations of K-Staters in her family with a scholarship fund established through a charitable gift annuity. The scholarship will provide assistance to juniors or seniors in K-State’s College of Human Ecology who exhibit financial need.

K-State connection: Autumn Fields graduated from K-State in 1941 with a degree in home economics. Her husband, Max Farrar, who studied engineering, was drafted before graduating and joined the family business after being discharged from the Army.

Four generations of K-Staters: Autumn Fields met her future husband, Max Farrar, at K-State. Both of their fathers attended Kansas State Agricultural College in the 1900s. (The school was renamed Kansas State University in 1959). Autumn and Max had six children, two of whom, Joe and Carl, attended K-State. Joe and his wife Nancy, who received a degree in education from K-State in 1971, have two sons who both graduated from K-State.

A generous nature: According to Joe, charitable giving was something his parents were always passionate about. Autumn was a strong supporter of her church and believed in helping others first.

A financial investment: “I saw it in a mailer the KSU Foundation sent, and I thought, ‘this would be great for Mom’,” Joe said. “I knew she had never really done anything [charitable] here at K-State. She was very conservative, and she kind of had her eggs all in one basket, investment-wise. I showed her that the return [on a charitable gift annuity] was better than she was making on her investment, and that it was tax deductible. At her age, it was a wonderfully smart thing.”

Why she gave: While the financial benefits of the charitable gift annuity were important to Autumn, the decision to give back to K-State wasn’t just part of her sensible nature — it was part of her sweet, caring and generous nature, too.

“The important thing to her was that she was able to do something,” he said. “We talked about different possibilities, and she liked the idea of the scholarship. She wanted to help someone get an education who maybe wouldn’t be able to otherwise.”