Through her estate, a 1948 graduate of Monmouth College donated family farmland valued at nearly $12 million to the college she attended over three-quarters of a century ago.
It is the second largest gift in the 171 years of the college.
“This was an unexpected, but obviously very, very welcome gift,” said Clarence Wyatt, Monmouth College president, of the estate bequest.
Marilyn Johnston, who died in September at age 98, was also generous to the college and her community in western Illinois throughout her life, Wyatt told the RFD Radio Network.
Her gift of a 780-acre farm in Mercer County was valued at $11.92 million.
“We were pleased in every way to be able to receive this gift and to honor Marilyn’s wonderful generosity,” Wyatt said.
All estate gifts to the college, located in Warren County, are appreciated, especially farmland, he said.
“We know just how passionately families, who have owned this farmland for generations, feel about this land they farm,” Wyatt said. “The fact that they would want to give, in some ways their most precious asset, to the college is a great testimony to their belief in the college.”
It becomes part of the college’s investments, nearly doubling the size of its farmland holdings, both in acreage and value. The gift will also expand the college’s endowment and investments, which support areas such as scholarships and academic programs, Wyatt said.
The gift also provides a way for the college to further serve its community, which would not want to risk that land going out of production, he said.
“We do not sell gifted farmland. We maintain it as working farmland,” Wyatt said. “At Monmouth College, we believe very much in serving our region and maintaining working farmland is part of that service to the community.”
This land becomes one of five farms the college manages, encompassing almost 2,000 acres — all maintained as working land. he said.
Wyatt welcomes other families, who have farmland and not the family to work it, to consider leaving it in the hands of the college to be “a wonderful caretaker of the land.”
Even before this gift, Johnston left a legacy of giving for the better part of a century, in part through a career in nursing.
Born in Chicago, she grew up in Aledo with a rich education that started with graduating from Aledo High School in 1943. As a sign of the times in which she lived, she was asked to leave the University of Michigan to make room for returning college-bound in-state World War II veterans. After completing two years at Stevens College in Missouri, she transferred to Monmouth College, graduating with a degree in general studies in 1948, then earned a nursing degree from the University of Colorado.
She worked as a nurse in Denver for five years before returning to Illinois to care for her aging parents and to work for 25 years at Mercer County Hospital.
She was a missionary nurse from 1955-1982 as well as a longtime farmer in the Aledo area, according to information from the college.
“She and her family were deeply rooted in this region and the connection to Monmouth being part of that,” Wyatt said. “She lived her life in service of this area.”
Her father, Robert Currie Johnston, was also on the board of trustees of the college, Wyatt said.
By giving a gift of “her family’s most precious asset” to a college, it shows she clearly believed deeply in the work done here. “It’s a wonderful story about a family and a person who believes in their area and their desire to serve it,” Wyatt said.
