Still Making a Difference: Bob and Marjorie Austin
Bequests to the Naval Institute are a true blessing, but also bittersweet as they signal the end of our association with a valued Member. When dedicated Members include the Institute in their wills, however, they have enduring impact long after they are gone.
There is a wrinkle: All too often, we don’t know a Member has included the Naval Institute in his or her estate plan until it is too late to express our thanks. We are in just such a situation now. In March 2006, we lost 57-year Member Retired Navy Commander Robert Campbell Austin of Columbus, Ohio. Seven years later, his widow, Marjorie Nield Austin, died at the age of 91. Months after her death in September 2013, we received word that the Naval Institute was among the beneficiaries of their estate. Commander Austin had been a modest but consistent donor throughout his membership and had several comments published in Proceedings and Naval History over the years. The Naval Institute is humbled by his devotion and by the generosity of the proceeds that continue to be received.
We now take the opportunity to publicly recognize the Austins. Their close friend Maria Marron, Dean of the College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, helped deepen our understanding of them.
Bob and Marjorie Austin were world travelers, voracious readers, and passionate aficionados of the arts—opera, the symphony, cinema. They were a Renaissance couple who knew history and politics, recited poetry and lines from great works of literature, and spoke many languages. According to Dr. Marron, the gregarious Bob loved being around people and playing tennis—in retirement, he sometimes played twice a day. A graduate of Oregon State University, he was a supply corps officer who served during World War II and the Korean War. After retiring from the Navy in 1974, he worked as an information-systems executive at the Columbia Gas Company in Ohio.
Bob had two brothers who also served in the military. Carl, a Navy pilot, was shot down over North Vietnam on 2 December 1965 during Operation Rolling Thunder. His body was never recovered. Bill was drafted by the New York Giants in 1949 out of Oregon State. In the early 1950s he took a two-year break for military service, then returned to the Giants and was part of their 1956 championship team. Later, he was the offensive coach for the Green Bay Packers and Washington Redskins under Vince Lombardi and had two stints as an NFL head coach with Pittsburgh and Washington.
Marjorie Ann Nield graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in political science in 1943 at the age of 20. After working at a law firm in Cincinnati, she eventually joined the Foreign Service in 1945 and worked in the American embassies in London, Rome, Trieste, Manila, and Istanbul. She met Bob Austin in the early 1950s while she was working for the U.S. Air Force in Washington, D.C. They married at the Washington National Cathedral in 1958 and later lived in San Diego and Philadelphia before Bob retired from the Navy. Dr. Marron adds that Bob and Marjorie Nield Austin were a marvelous couple whose love for each other was matched by a love of life, a genuine joie de vivre. The Naval Institute has been enriched in every way by their long association.
Your Decision Today Creates a Better Naval Institute Tomorrow
You, too, can leave a legacy to strengthen the Naval Institute for those who follow. Please remember the Naval Institute in your will. All it takes is a quick phone call to your estate planner or lawyer to add a charitable gift to the Naval Institute. Language as simple as “I bequeath $__________ or _____% of my estate to the Naval Institute Foundation; 291 Wood Road; Annapolis, MD 21402” is all that is necessary. The Foundation’s EIN number is 52-1814344.
In the fullness of time, your generosity will be gratefully applied by the Naval Institute where it is most needed—or, if you prefer, you can stipulate the educational program or initiative you choose to support. If you do decide to include the Naval Institute in your estate plan, please let us know. Your dedication is a big deal to us—and we want to be sure you know it.
For more information, please contact Sue Sweeney at (410) 295-1054 or at [email protected].