Gift Guarantees Family Legacy Lives On
When Frank Denholm gifted his family's farm to McCrory Gardens and South Dakota Agricultural Heritage Museum at SDSU, the resulting endowments ensured the Denholm legacy will live on.
Frank Denholm lived a remarkable and full 92 years. Married to his beloved wife, Mildred, for more than 60 years, the couple had a passion for serving their community. A 1956 SDSU political science graduate, Denholm served as an FBI Special Agent, as Day County Sheriff, and in the U.S. Congress. He served as a trial lawyer, practicing law in Brookings for more than 50 years, and as a public auctioneer and farmer.
The foundation of Denholm's incredible life was deeply rooted in The Homestead, the name his family affectionately used for the land Frank's dad, John J. Denholm, homesteaded in western Day County. Although John acquired more farmland, it was The Homestead he was able to hang on to during the worst years of the Depression.
"The Homestead was the pride and joy of my father," Denholm wrote in 2008.
To honor the memory of his father, the land that three generations of Denholms farmed, and secure his and Mildred's legacy of service, in 2008 Denholm made an estate gift of The Homestead to the South Dakota Agricultural Heritage Museum and McCrory Gardens.
"My father was a great advocate for State and worked closely with the Extension Service … he urged all (his children) to attend South Dakota State College," wrote Denholm at the time he formalized the gift to SDSU. "SDSU was a major component of the whole that molded the foundation for (my) life."
Following Denholm's instructions, upon his 2016 death, the SDSU Foundation sold the 320 acres of farmland. The resulting endowments will provide significant funds annually to the South Dakota Agricultural Heritage Museum and McCrory Gardens.
"This gift allows us to dream," explained Lisa Marotz, Director of Operations for McCrory Gardens, SDSU's botanical gardens and arboretum located on 70 acres of land on the northeast corner of campus.
Open to students, faculty, and the general public, McCrory Gardens works to connect people and plants through education, research, discovery, and enjoyment of the natural and built landscape.
With the intent that 50 percent of his overall gift would be used to enhance the mission of McCrory Gardens, Denholm worked with the SDSU Foundation. "As a lawyer, he understood the importance of working with the SDSU Foundation to document his intentions," explained Steve Erpenbach, President and CEO of SDSU Foundation. "Following through and investing dollars the way a donor directed us is the most important thing we do with a donor's gift, whether it is $100 or $1 million."
Marotz said the annual gift may be used to fund educational programming or enrichment projects, like building a canopy walk so visitors can walk among the treetops. "University faculty and McCrory staff are constantly coming up with new ideas to enhance our mission. But everything takes money. Now we have funds to bring ideas to fruition," she said. Each year, McCrory Gardens rents greenhouse space from the Department of Agronomy, Horticulture and Plant Science to start the more than 60,000 annuals they plant each spring. Denholm's endowment might help with that.
"The perpetual nature of the Denholm gift provides a foundation we can dig our roots into," Marotz explained.
Gwen McCausland, Director of South Dakota Agricultural Heritage Museum, agreed. "His donation of land benefits visitors to our museum today, and because it's a lasting endowment, we can count on it for years and generations to come."
Denholm's instructions also indicate 50 percent of the overall gift be given in his father's name to further the mission of the South Dakota Agricultural Heritage Museum, which is to inspire a passion for the diverse history, culture, and science of agriculture in South Dakota.
Whether the annual gift funds new exhibits or conservation and preservation of the museum's extensive collection – which ranges from conventional tractors and rare, farmer-built machinery to household items that document rural life in South Dakota – McCausland said it aids in preservation of South Dakota's agriculture heritage, as well as the Denholm legacy.
"We know what this land meant to Frank, his dad, and his family," McCausland said. "One never knows if land will stay in a family. Because of this gift, John Denholm's legacy as a South Dakota homesteader and farmer will live on."