Gift & Estate Planning

Diane and Bibb Saye

Giving Back: Bibb Saye

In the late 1970s, UGA political science professor Albert Saye visited his nephew, Van Bibb ("Bibb") Saye, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Bibb, a 1950 graduate of UGA, had moved to Baton Rouge not long before to begin his cardiology practice. Something had been on Albert's mind, and he wanted to share it with the nephew he had watched grow from a rural farm boy in Rutledge, Georgia, to a studious physician with a promising career ahead of him. Albert, also an alumnus of UGA (AB '34, MA '35, LLM '57), told his nephew that the University needed support for faculty, and explained that he had decided to honor his former UGA professor and mentor, Dr. Merton Coulter, by establishing an endowed professorship in Dr. Coulter's name.

"The importance of education was emphasized in my family for generations," recalls Bibb when he thinks back to that conversation. "My great grandfather, John Saye, was the first school superintendent in Morgan County, Georgia, and helped establish the state's public school system in the 1880s." Bibb's mother, Ida Marguerite Marbut, was one of the first female graduates of UGA and received her A.B. in education in 1928, and thanks to years of summer school at Emory at Oxford before he officially entered college, Bibb himself graduated from the University at the early age of 19.

The conversation that hot Louisiana day got Bibb thinking. He admired his uncle's generosity and commitment to education. He remembered the many times his uncle had encouraged him to pursue his dream of being a doctor and had advised him on important decisions throughout his life. His uncle had even provided a room for him in his home in Five Points while Bibb was studying at the University. Bibb didn't have to think very long. As he had done many times in the past, he wanted to follow his uncle's example. He wanted to establish an endowment at UGA to honor the man he considered his mentor –Albert Saye.

There was only one problem: Bibb had no money.

"Medicine was not a lucrative profession back then," says Bibb, remembering those years. "I didn't have a lot of money at the time."

Not a man to be dissuaded once he sets his mind to achieving a goal, Bibb got creative. He worked with the University to establish a planned gift that would create the professorship for his uncle that he envisioned.

"I decided to name a fund at UGA as the beneficiary of one of my life insurance policies," says Bibb. "In fact, I'm still paying on it today."

Bibb named the University's foundation as the owner and beneficiary of a $250,000 life insurance policy. Each year, Bibb makes a tax-deductible contribution to the University's foundation to pay the premium on the policy. When the policy matures, it will benefit the Albert Berry Saye Professorship in American Government and Constitutional Law within the political science department of the School of Public and International Affairs.

Bibb and his uncle thought alike in more ways than one. When Albert and his wife, Ruth, passed away, they had also made provisions through their estate plans to support the University, and their estate fully funded not only the Merton Coulter Professorship, but two additional professorships – one being the very professorship that Bibb had included in his own estate plans: the Albert Berry Saye Professorship in American Government and Constitutional Law.

Thus, Bibb saw the professorship he conceived become a reality in 2002 when it was awarded to Dr. Susette M. Talarico, UGA professor of political science and director of the Criminal Justice Studies Program. Upon her retirement, the professorship was awarded to Dr. John A. Maltese, current head of the political science department, who retains the title today.

"It has been a true pleasure to get to know Bibb and Diane Saye through my appointment as the Saye Professor," says Dr. Maltese, who spent time with the couple last fall while they were visiting Athens. "Their generosity will continue to benefit faculty for generations to come, and I thank them for their foresight in establishing this professorship and for their commitment to higher education."

Bibb and his wife Diane still reside in Baton Rouge, and Bibb, although officially retired, continues his dedication to higher learning by traveling to Earl K. Long Medical Center every day to instruct LSU medical students on reading stress tests and echocardiograms.

"It's my 60th year practicing medicine," says Bibb. "I'm doing what I love to do. I'm the luckiest man on earth, and it started with my family's strong belief in the value of education."

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