Faced with a challenge, they invest in hope

Most donors to BU, as with other universities, are alums. So it’s always interesting to know why a non-Terrier decides to support the University.

In this case, it was about the terriers.

“My wife and I, when we were growing up, had Scottish terriers,” says Hugh Mensch. “And that just made it a natural to go to BU.”

And yes, he does know that BU’s mascot is a Boston terrier, not a Scottie. He just enjoys a joke as much as the next person.

But the real reason behind Mensch’s decision to make a substantial gift to the University is quite serious. He and his wife, Cheryl, for many years had honored a late friend by supporting research elsewhere into amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease), until a series of events caused them to change course.

A close friend and golf partner, who was a BU alum, died last year. A next-door neighbor’s wife now has early-onset Alzheimer’s. Another friend’s wife was in an Alzheimer’s research study at BU.

These developments encouraged the couple to change their philanthropic focus from ALS to Alzheimer’s. (They have no children and had always planned to leave their money to charity.) So they started looking for the nation’s top researchers in dementia.

“BU really was impressive when we were looking around for a place to make our donations,” Mensch says. “And so we thought, you're doing good work, and it was a good place to put our money.”

Originally, the Mensches had planned to make their gift only with a bequest. But when they learned that they could also give through a qualified charitable distribution, or QCD, they were delighted to start seeing the impact of their giving right away.

Giving to BU through a QCD also provides substantial tax benefits to the couple. Available to anyone with a taxable IRA who is 70½ or older, a QCD allows you to donate up to $108,000 a year. This donation can save on taxes for those 73 and older, because it may count as some or all of the required minimum distribution.

“We have an IRA, and a substantial one,” Mensch notes. “Actually, because the last company that I worked for was bought out, there was a nice nest egg built up there. And we thought, since we're eventually going to give our money to BU anyway, it makes sense for us to get a tax break and use that method of doing it.”

Mensch can look back with satisfaction on the career that led to that nest egg. He spent 25 years at IBM, “and then the last 10 years of my career I spent with a little 85-person company,” he says. “So I’m one extreme to the other.”

But even that “little” company didn’t stay little for long. Over the course of 10 years, it grew to become the largest US-based company in its market. And Mensch loved the work.

“It was like everything I had done up till that point in my career was getting me ready for that job,” he says. As the vice president of business development, he had the whole sales team reporting to him, “and all of our business partners went through my channel as well. It was absolutely the most fun time I’ve had in my entire career.”

And the company’s financial success made it possible for the couple to retire to Southern Pines, North Carolina. After spending decades in Detroit, this avid golfer is particularly grateful for the gentler climate and excellent golf courses of their new location.

As for the future, who knows?

“There are some drugs on the market that are supposed to slow down the progression, but we need something that is either a cure or a preventative,” Mensch says. “We're optimistic.”