Planned gift supports UTeachTech
Even though he never officially earned a degree from Louisiana Tech University, Dr. Charles “Hank” Packman considers himself a graduate.
Packman felt because neither he nor his wife had to pay for their college educations — the state required no tuition when they were students — that he had a “debt to pay.” So he paid it through the Louisiana Tech University Foundation, and in a way that has a positive and immediate impact on Tech students and the region.
Dr. Packman, who attended Tech before going to LSU for medical school in 1963, made two Campaign gifts to the University, one immediate and the second as a planned gift.
The first gift honored his late wife, Dana Packman, a 1965 graduate of the College of Education. The Dana Miller Packman Endowed Superior Graduate Scholarship supports a graduate student enrolled in Tech’s College of Education’s Counseling Psychology PhD program.
Dana was a teacher with a doctorate in math pedagogy who spent much of her career working in the healthcare environment on testing and diagnostics for children with learning disabilities and children who needed other psychological assessments. Packman believes the work of the Counseling Psychology program in the Psychological Services Clinic in the University’s College of Education speaks strongly to the urgency and importance of both his wife’s mission and the mission of others who are carrying on this important and rewarding task.
The second gift is a planned gift; Packman made UTeachTech in the College of Education the beneficiary of a retirement account. He believes strongly that UTeachTech is an important program to sustain, one that serves the entire University and will constantly have a steady impact on the region by fostering a STEM-ready workforce.
Packman’s gift was the first major gift toward the endowment of the UTeachTech program. The growth of the endowment is critical to sustaining this relatively new and vital program, which provides an opportunity for undergraduate students majoring in biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, computer science, or engineering to earn both their subject-matter degree and teaching certification.