Planned Gift Creates Scholarships for Golfers

Marjorie and Kenneth Jameson

Marjorie and Kenneth Jameson made a gift to Missouri Western in their estate plan. The gift will provide scholarships to students on the University's golf team.

There's one thing that everyone who knew Kenneth Jameson could say about him with certainty — the man loved golf. Even before he retired from Hillyard as traffic manager after 27 years of service, he was a regular fixture at St. Joseph's Fairview Golf Course.

Because of his love of the sport, it should come as no surprise to his friends that the MWSU Foundation received a gift from Kenneth and his wife's estate that will benefit members of the University golf team.

With a gift of more than $330,000, the Kenneth R. Jameson and Marjorie C. Jameson Scholarship Fund was established to award scholarships for needy students, with first consideration to members of Missouri Western's golf team. Marjorie passed away several years ago and Kenneth passed away in 2017.

"They wanted to do something to give back to the community and help kids in college," says Clark Tally, longtime friend of the Jamesons.

Marjorie and Kenneth, both St. Joseph natives, met Clark and his family when they became neighbors in the early 1990s. Since Kenneth and his wife had no children and the Tallys had no extended family in St. Joseph, Clark, his wife Susan, and their two daughters "adopted" the Jamesons as family, celebrating holidays with them and spending a lot of time together.

"I thought of him as a father and he thought of me as a son," Clark says.

The Jamesons had no real connection to Missouri Western, except perhaps for friends Mike and Cathy Habermehl, who coached men's and women's golf teams at Missouri Western for several years. Kenneth met Mike in 1985, when Mike became the golf pro at Fairview, and they remained friends until Kenneth passed away. When Kenneth was no longer able to golf, he still visited Fairview every weekday morning to play cards.

"This will help Missouri Western's golf team a lot," Mike says. "I am so pleased."

Both Mike and Clark say the Jamesons were two of the kindest people you could ever know. "Honest," "friendly" and "sweet" were descriptors they used.

"No one would not consider him a friend," Mike says of Kenneth.

"Of all the good things you can say about somebody, you could say it about them," Clark says.

Spread goodness at Missouri Western with a gift for the future like the one the Jamesons made. Get started by contacting Kim Weddle at 816-271-5648 or weddle@missouriwestern.edu.