Mrs. Long, who was predeceased by her husband, recently passed away at the age of 83, leaving, as part of her estate, a $189,000 gift to the University of Rhode Island. She specified in her will a preference for providing scholarships to needy and deserving students. Her gift is part of the University’s Making A Difference capital campaign.
Glen Kerkian, president of the Foundation, expressed his gratitude for this gift, noting, “The University of Rhode Island is fortunate to have so many alumni and friends who are dedicated to furthering and supporting higher education and are showing it through their gifts, pledges and bequests. We look forward to providing deserving students with the opportunity to emulate Mrs. Long’s “trailblazing” spirit in their future careers using the tools and education they receive here at URI.”
When Mrs. Long joined Edwards and Angell in September, 1950 and she was, in fact, its very first female attorney. She later became the first female partner at the firm and remained the only woman in that position for many years. She worked at E&A for over fifty years, concentrating on trusts and estates before retiring in 1990.
Mrs. Long was also a “first” at the Rhode Island Bar Association, being elected the professional organization’s first woman president. Not entirely comfortable being called a “trailblazer,” Long told a Providence Journal reporter over a decade ago, “I was focused on being a good lawyer.” She noted further noted that she chose not to join the Rhode Island Women’s Bar Association, which existed as more of a networking and social association. “I’m not a woman lawyer,” she noted at the time, “I’m a lawyer who is a woman, and I’m a lawyer first.”
Mrs. Long, together with her husband who passed away some twenty years ago, was a long-time supporter of charities and organizations aimed at helping children. Though she had no children of her own, she served on the boards of several agencies over the years and considered her participation as one way to make a social investment in future generations. She placed a high value on education and recognized the positive and lasting impact it could have on the lives of our youth.
Mary Louise Kennedy, an attorney at Edwards, Angell, Palmer & Dodge, and a friend and former colleague of Mrs. Long, said, “Beverly believed in supporting institutions of higher education, both her own alma maters and others, like URI, that make possible the lives and careers that she and Jack enjoyed so much.” She added, “Her estate also provided for the University of Chicago and Columbia Law, from which she received degrees, but Beverly was also an active alumna, and would nudge me about becoming more active with my own alma maters. Involvement was important to her.”
Donna-Jean Rainville, Director of Gift Planning for the URI Foundation, added, “Bequests remain the most popular way for alumni and friends to make a planned gift to the University. It’s easy and allows donors to direct how their assets will be utilized. Mrs. Long’s generosity will provide access to education for students who might not have been able to attend college. She would have been very proud!”
According to Kennedy, though neither Beverly nor her husband were native Rhode Islanders, they chose to live in Rhode Island and called Providence home for over 50 years. “They felt a strong sense of responsibility in terms of giving back to the state they ‘adopted’ as their own. I am not at all surprised by the generosity Beverly demonstrated by including the University of Rhode Island in her estate plans.”
URI’s “Making a Difference” Campaign seeks $100 million to recruit and retain outstanding faculty, enhance the student-centered campus experience, provide undergraduate scholarships and graduate fellowships, and fund cutting-edge academic and research initiatives. For more information on bequests and other gift planning opportunities, please contact Donna-Jean Rainville at 401.874.2296 or email her at drainville@foundation.uri.edu. For more information on the “Making A Difference” campaign visit http://www.urifoundation.org./