Archives for December 12, 2024

Missouri Native Becomes a Husker Fan

By Susan Houston Klaus

Paul Garnett has been a loyal Husker Athletics fan ever since he moved to Nebraska from his home state of Missouri nearly 49 years ago.

A Burnett Society member, Paul believes so strongly in the combination of athletics and education, he’s giving back to the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in the form of an athletic scholarship in his name. He’s made a planned gift to the University of Nebraska Foundation to benefit the Husker Athletics program.

Playing sports, Paul said, has always been an important part of his life.

“I had an older cousin who was a good athlete, so we did backyard competitions about anything and everything,” he said. “Just naturally, I guess, I gravitated toward sports — Little League baseball and flag football, and track, basketball and baseball in high school.”

Paul’s athletic talent earned him a college basketball and baseball scholarship, giving him an opportunity he says he otherwise wouldn’t have been able to afford.

“I grew up on a small farm in central Missouri, and we didn’t have a lot of financial wherewithal as a family,” he said. “I doubt that I would have been able to financially go to college if it wasn’t for an athletic scholarship.”

Paul earned his bachelor’s degree in physical education at Truman State University. He was working toward a master’s degree — with plans of being a coach — when his father passed away. Family responsibilities came first, and he left school to help his mom run the family’s farm for about a year and a half.

Paul returned to school after that, but he changed his area of study to finance and economics. It was a move, he said, that would alter his life trajectory. He got a job as a salesperson with brokerage firm Edward Jones, and in 1976 he was scouting communities where he could open a new office. A few Nebraska towns were open to talking with him. So, he came to see the southeast part of the state and a few days later chose Beatrice as his new home — starting his life over from scratch “and not knowing a person,” he said.

Today, Paul has four decades of experience in the finance industry. He’s the co-owner, with his daughter, Traci Garnett-Froscheiser, of Garnett Investment Strategies. For 12 years, the company has managed assets for nonprofit organizations as a registered investment adviser, or RIA.

As an entrepreneur, Paul has been involved in more than 20 private equity companies, including ag, tech, medical emergency evacuation, and health and dietary startups. For example, his management company operates the second-largest egg producer in the United States.

Paul became involved with Husker Athletics during the early 1980s, when each sport had a booster club with a board of directors. Serving on those boards, he got to know men’s basketball head coach Danny Nee and, later, coach Doc Sadler and former Athletic Director Bill Byrne. Paul has been a loyal Husker fan and often attends games with his family.

“We go to a lot of games,” he said. “We’ve got eight football tickets and four basketball tickets, and we go to all the football games and almost all of the basketball games.”

Occasionally, he attends a volleyball match and also enjoys watching Husker Baseball.

Paul feels confident having the University of Nebraska Foundation manage the assets he’s leaving to the university.

“I’m a big fan of the foundation,” he said. “I have watched their investment policy statements and how well they diversify and manage the returns that are out there. I feel very comfortable that the assets I leave behind will be managed well for many, many generations to come to support Nebraska scholarships and Nebraska facilities.”

Paul said his success is “maybe the result of some hard work, and maybe a lot of luck along the way.” He’s a believer in donating his time and resources to things he has a passion for.

“I guess I’m in the business where I understand that we’re all mortal,” he said, “and if I have some kind of financial assets left behind, you look at family, you look at God, you look at the passions that you support.”

As Paul reflects on the success he’s had, he knows young people just need an opportunity.

“I think it’s beneficial to help kids find their way to get to higher education,” he said. “So I want to make sure the facilities are good. I want to make sure that there’s scholarship money. I want to pass it on.”

Fighting Cancer by Giving Back

By Robyn Murray

Born and raised in Aurora, Nebraska, Doris Jones married her high school sweetheart, Lyle, in 1954. For 68 years, they lived, loved and worked together, raising three children in Lincoln.

Two years ago, Lyle passed away from esophageal cancer. The loss was devastating, but it wasn’t the first time — and it wouldn’t be the last — that cancer extended its deadly grasp into her family’s life. Doris, a Burnett Society member, had already lost her father and father-in-law to cancer. She had watched her oldest daughter fight thyroid cancer and skin cancer and her second daughter endure a double mastectomy to fight a cancer diagnosis.

Those experiences inspired Doris to do what she could to give back, to make whatever impact, large or small, to help in the global fight against the ravages of cancer, which continues to be a leading cause of death worldwide. After speaking with a development officer at the University of Nebraska Foundation, who has become a good friend, Doris decided to direct two insurance policies to the University of Nebraska Medical Center, establishing the Lyle M. and Doris V. Jones Memorial Cancer Research Fund.

“I got really excited and decided this is what I want to do,” Doris said. “It’s just so good to give. It’s a good feeling.”

Giving back was always part of Doris and Lyle’s life. They began with a gift to the CEDARS Home for Children, after their granddaughter died from a surgical error, and they never turned back.

“We haven’t taken any trips around the world, and I don’t drive a Cadillac, but I think we’ve really helped a lot of people through the years,” Doris said. “I think it’s a wonderful way to give money that you don’t really need yourself.”

Doris said her hope is that someday cancer will be eliminated, and the suffering will end.

“That’s a really big dream, of course,” she said, “but it’s just such an awful thing to see people suffer from. And because it’s been so prevalent with people in my own life, if I can be of help in any way, that’s really important to me.”