Alumni Giving

Generating Scholarship Support with a Charitable Gift Annuity:
Elizabeth Roberg Yingling, M.D. ’56

When I was a student, says Betty Roberg Yingling, M.D. ’56, some of our professors made it clear that we were taking up seats that men should be occupying.

These faculty members couldn’t resist the occasional dig at Yingling and her three female classmates in the School of Medicine’s 1952 freshman class. “We were certainly a minority,” she says.

As a woman, Yingling was an atypical member of her medical-school class. And her medical career didn’t follow a typical path, either.

It began in the usual way, with further medical training. During an internship at Salt Lake County General Hospital, the teaching hospital for the University of Utah School of Medicine, Yingling met and married Mack E. Patterson, a fellow intern from Texas. Following Patterson’s two years in the Air Force, during which time their daughter, Margie, was born, the family moved to Texas for residencies at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston.

Yingling began her residency in anesthesiology at the same time her husband began a residency in otolaryngology, but it simply didn’t work out. “There were no concessions made for a married couple with a family,” says Yingling, and there was only one weekend a month where neither parent was on call. After 10 months — during which Margie grew steadily more unhappy —Yingling decided to leave her residency. A few years later, the couple’s son, Roy, was born.

Yingling never regretted staying at home during her children’s early years. “I had a wonderful time with my kids,” she says.

At age 44, when the children were more independent, Yingling returned to medical practice. The family had moved to Fresno, Calif., and Yingling found a job at a residential school program for learning-disabled children run by the California Department of Education. A little more than a decade later, she transferred to the state’s Department of Social Services, where she reviewed Social Security disability claims. Yingling enjoyed the work, although she needed to take CME courses “to re-learn some things about adults.”

Yingling has made many changes in the past few years. She and her first husband divorced. And she retired and returned to the Pacific Northwest, where she renewed some important contacts. After attending a high-school reunion in Yakima, Wash., she became reacquainted with her old friend Donald Yingling and married him. “I knew her first,” he says, “but I got her second.”

Since moving back to Washington 10 years ago, Yingling has become involved with the UW School of Medicine Alumni Association and helped with the scholarship campaign for the Class of 1956. While Yingling was thinking about scholarships and the high cost of medical education,* she also was learning about charitable gift annuities, a financial tool that establishes a fixed life income for the donor and a future gift for the University.

Yingling has a comfortable pension from the State of California following more than 20 years of service. Still, she says, “once you retire, you don’t have any way to generate additional income — except through investment.” Establishing a charitable gift annuity (CGA) sounded like a terrific idea. After consulting with her financial advisor, she created a CGA at UW Medicine.

The CGA, however, means much more than an income stream to Yingling. In the future, it will mean scholarship support for medical students at the UW, a cause that resonates with her.

Yingling knows that affording a good medical education has become progressively more difficult. She also knows that her planned gift will provide real help for students.
The gift is also a straightforward expression of thanks. “I made the gift in gratitude for the superb education I received,” says Yingling, “and the doors that opened because of it.”