Curry School of Education | University of Virginia

Giving Because It Feels Good

Annetta Coffelt and her son Bob Coffelt congratulate Christiana Richardson, 2007 recipient of the Robert M. and Annetta J. Coffelt and Robert M. Coffelt, Jr., Scholarship.

The inscription on his father’s headstone reads, “A life devoted to Christ, family, friends, country, and mankind lives forever.”

Robert M. Coffelt, Jr., wants to leave behind a legacy as well, and in the process “hitch his wagon” to something bigger than himself.

While Coffelt was enrolled in the College in the early 1970s he took a couple of courses from the Curry School and found them “very powerful.” When he began to take a closer look at Curry’s work a few years ago, he quickly realized that the School’s mission was consistent with his own: to “make the world a better place.”

“My mother and I chose the Curry School because the work it does transcends time and space,” Coffelt says. “It has an impact both on current society and the future.

“Curry is doing such a great thing,” he continues. “It is the platform by which we can develop better citizens and change the country. It’s the multiplier.” He also likes the efforts the School is making “in terms of really exploring the theory of education—how you make a teacher a better teacher and how you make students more receptive to learning.”

Coffelt is an only child who has no children of his own. He and his mother, Annetta Coffelt, have always made their gifts to the Curry School Foundation jointly, beginning with an endowed scholarship for students in the five-year teacher education program. “Not having children or grandchildren, we wanted to begin our giving with a human connection.” They both enjoy attending the annual Curry School Foundation honors and awards luncheon, where they can meet the current year’s recipient of their scholarship.

They also give annually to the school’s unrestricted fund. “I need to trust the School to use the funds for whatever it deems a priority,” Bob says. They made a generous gift for Bavaro Hall as well.

“Ultimately, Mother and I have been doing this philanthropy because it makes us feel good, and we decided it was foolish for us to take our assets to the grave with us,” Coffelt says. “There’s more we’re receiving from this than you might realize.”