Campus, Arches

$10 million commitment is the biggest single gift in Puget Sound’s history.

Logger student-athletes will benefit on and off the field from a historic gift to the university. The Tom and Meg Names Family Foundation has committed $10 million—the largest single gift in the university’s 134-year history—to the Puget Sound endowment. The gift will add to the existing Tom and Meg Names Family Foundation Endowed Fund for Athletics and create a new fund to support the health, wellness, and development— both personal and professional—of Logger student-athletes.

President Isiaah Crawford calls the gift “transformational.”

“As I affirmed to the board of trustees in May 2022, it is a goal of the university to build a championship athletics culture on our campus,” Crawford says. “This commitment provides a strong foundation as we set our sights on competing regularly at the national level. This work, overseen by Director of Athletics Amy Hackett and our talented coaches and athletics staff, is well aligned with the goals and objectives outlined in our strategic plan.”

Tom ’59 and Meg Names ’56

The gift was made in memory of Tom ’59 and Meg ’56 Names, who met at Puget Sound.

The commitment represents a strategic investment in athletics as an essential part of a liberal arts education. About one in four Puget Sound students competes in athletics, and the school offers 23 varsity sports—tied for the most in the Pacific Northwest Conference. The graduation rate for student-athletes is more than 80%, higher than the conference and national averages.

Among other benefits, the gift will support in perpetuity the Puget Sound Performance Success (PS2) Program, which blends athletics with experiential learning. The PS2 Program supports student-athletes through opportunities and services related to physical readiness, wellness, and personal and professional development.

The gift honors Tom ’59 and Meg ’56 Names, who met at Puget Sound and remained supporters throughout their lives. (Tom died in 2015; Meg, in 2016.) Previous gifts from the Tom and Meg Names Family Foundation and a related organization, the Names Family Foundation, have supported the university’s general endowment and the Puget Sound Fund, as well as the construction and renovation of Lower Baker Field, the Wilson Welcome Center, and the Athletics and Aquatics Center.

Among the board members of the Tom and Meg Names Family Foundation are Tom and Meg’s daughters, Erin Shagren ’88, P’17 (who also is a Puget Sound trustee) and Monica Names-King.

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