John Cota ’59 B.A. (Hist.), a teacher in New York City for 33 years, is by his own admission not a wealthy man. Very few high school teachers amass significant wealth, after all. But he worked hard and his family worked hard, and now he’s proud to have been able to make a significant gift to Maxwell in the form of a bequest. He is a classic example of Maxwell alumni, working in education or the public sector, who use planned giving to maximize their philanthropy. Cota has fond memories of Maxwell. He recalls being captivated by the lectures of such faculty members as Jerry Brown, Mike Sawyer, and Ralph Ketcham.

His time in Maxwell Hall, he says, set the stage for a satisfying life of public service, spent as a history teacher in New York City. He taught in a school, set near with Kennedy Airport, for students were newly immigrated to the United States. Very few had a good command of English. Cota remembers meeting one young man who, only weeks before their encounter, had been tending sheep on the hills of his home country; and a Vietnamese “boat girl” who taught Cota to use chop sticks.

It’s been an interesting career—a “decent life,” Cota says—launched at Maxwell. Like others who appreciate the role Maxwell plays in their lives but who lack the means to make a major out-of-pocket gift, Cota employed planned giving options. In his case, the gift is a bequest. But there are several planned giving options that allow donors to keep using their money today while supporting the School. Those include charitable gift annuities, which provide a fixed annual income to the donor while promising the principal to Maxwell; charitable remainder annuity trusts and charitable remainder unitrusts, which invest assets the donor transfers to Maxwell for a set term; and pooled income funds, which resemble a mutual fund and provide income based on the number of units purchased.