UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Since he was 11 years old, Bruce McPheron knew he was going to become an entomologist one day. It wasn’t simply a dream but a lifelong plan put in motion while he was a 4-H youth in Ohio exploring the county fairgrounds and its exhibits.
Through his years of higher education and graduate work at Ohio State and Illinois, respectively, and time as a county Extension agent, he never lost sight of his goal. Then in 1988, he was hired as an assistant professor of entomology at Penn State. Now, decades later and retired, McPheron and his wife, Marilyn, herself a former University staff member as well as a Penn State graduate, have made both a future pledge and an outright gift to support student experience opportunities in the College of Agricultural Sciences Department of Entomology and at the Frost Entomological Museum.
“Bruce and Marilyn have committed their lives to educate, serve and uplift others,” said Troy Ott, Peter and Ann Tombros Dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences. “Bruce is a visionary academic leader and passionate advocate for agriculture and, along with Marilyn, they understand the transformative impact of their philanthropy on the lives and futures of our students. We are so grateful to have them as members of the college family.”
The McPherons’ $250,000 bequest will create the McPheron Family Student Experience Endowment in the Department of Entomology and support experiential learning opportunities and activities for graduate students.
“The McPheron Family Student Experience Endowment will provide a transformative boost to our entomology graduate program by expanding research opportunities, enhancing student support and strengthening our ability to recruit top talent,” said Gary Felton, head of the Department of Entomology. “This investment will directly enrich the training environment for our graduate students ensuring they are well prepared for their future careers. We are deeply grateful for this generous future gift.”
The couple’s $50,000 outright gift to create the McPheron Family Student Experience Fund at the Frost Entomological Museum will provide funding for programs, initiatives, travel, research, internships and related expenses to support undergraduate and graduate student projects.
“This generous gift offers the Frost Museum an extraordinary opportunity, and it arrives at a moment when we are actively seeking to expand undergraduate engagement,” said Andrew Deans, director of the Frost Entomological Museum. “Dr. McPheron was central to the museum's legacy, as a researcher who explored questions of biodiversity and speciation. The McPherons' support will ultimately make specimen data more accessible for research while providing new generations of undergraduate interns the opportunity to immerse themselves in the world of museum curation and public engagement. We are excited and thankful.”
For McPheron, whose career at Penn State spanned 25 years and multiple roles, providing present and future support for the college was an easy decision.
“We think back on those 25 years at Penn State, and it was just a wonderful experience,” said McPheron. “At the same time that I was stepping into leadership roles in the college, Marilyn was hired into a role working with Deanna Behring to support the college’s study abroad program, which would inspire Marilyn’s first gift of a scholarship for international experiences. When it came time to think about additional philanthropic opportunities, we really appreciated how Penn State has kept us engaged in the life of the college all this time.”
As a past dean at Penn State, as well as an executive vice president and provost at Ohio State, McPheron knows the impact of philanthropy and has a sense for what areas are easier versus challenging to raise money for. That knowledge and his own interests helped to inform the direction of this latest gift.
“Support for graduate students has always been of interest to me,” McPheron said. “Often you can find money to go to a professional meeting, but what you really need is money for travel to spend time in a colleague’s lab, or you need supplies for a project you’re working on that doesn’t fit into your mentor’s grant funding. It really resonated to think about providing support that would give the Department of Entomology the flexibility to lift up those needs and meet them.”
McPheron, a member of the college’s Dean’s Leadership Council, knew that while he and Marilyn wanted to establish a legacy, they also wanted to provide immediate support, which prompted the creation of the student experience fund for the museum.
“A lot of science is the sequential building process of taking observations, testing, refining and having the next set of questions emerge,” McPheron said. “And this works because of a continuity across generations, but you must have skilled and knowledgeable scholars following in the footsteps of those who came before them who understand the baseline, the relationships between organisms and the work that’s been done. Under Dr. Dean’s leadership, the museum is bringing that all to life in a really important way and making it come alive for students in a variety of disciplines.”
The McPherons said it means a lot to be able to support Penn State, the college, its programs and its students: “People have supported us all our lives, and this is just one way we can repay that debt. We’re not paying it to the person who helped us, but there’s a feeling that you’re doing something that matters, that holds society together in a way that’s important. ... Penn State was such a fundamental part of our lives. Half our married life was spent in the College of Agricultural Sciences. It was a place that gave us both room to grow in ways that country kids from North Central Ohio never imagined. To be able to support the mission of a place that has had that kind of impact on your life is really satisfying.”
Gifts like the McPheron’s advance the University’s historic land-grant mission to serve and lead. Through philanthropy, alumni and friends are helping students to join the Penn State family and prepare for lifelong success; driving research, outreach and economic development that grow our shared strength and readiness for the future; and increasing the University’s impact for families, patients and communities across the commonwealth and around the world. Learn more by visiting raise.psu.edu.