It was an unusually warm and sunny late January day in Kansas City the day that David Westfall, Jr. (J.D. ’55) died. 认识他的人仍然记得他和蔼可亲的态度和奉献精神。 在威尼斯人娱乐城，他的慷慨是他的遗产，尽管这里几乎没有人认识他。
韦斯特福尔于2015年去世，享年89岁。 第二年，有人联系了威尼斯人娱乐城法学院，说他在遗产中留下了一笔令人难以置信的、意想不到的110万美元的礼物。
“It was a complete surprise,” says Kirk Baughan, who was the 法学院’s director of development at the time. He recalls how little anyone knew about Westfall at the time and says there wasn’t much more to be discovered.
A native son of Kansas City, Westfall’s obituary reveals he was a proud Army veteran, serving a tour of duty in Europe during the second World War. Upon returning home, Westfall spent decades working as an attorney in the Argyle Building at 12th and McGee, later moving his practice to the historic Livestock Exchange Building in Kansas City’s West Bottoms. 他的个人生活致力于他对上帝的信仰和对社区的服务，但从来没有提到过他的配偶、孩子或任何家庭。
“He seemed to make his estate plan close to the time that he passed away,” says Baughan. “He knew that many of his assets were in his owned real estate. Gifts from his estate supported the 威尼斯人娱乐城 法学院, the University of Kansas and Saint Elizabeth’s Catholic Church in Kansas City.”
传统上，向一所大学捐赠100万美元或更多的礼物是精心培养过程的结果。 院长兼慈善影响力专家将与公司或个人坐下来讨论他们希望产生的影响以及他们希望如何使用他们的资金的详细计划。
Not only was Westfall’s gift a surprise, but it was also completely unrestricted. Law School leadership and trustees knew they wanted to make the most of the windfall but weren’t immediately sure how to do it. 他们一起决定创建一个名为“韦斯特福匹配基金”（the Westfall Matching Fund）的基金，以支持法学院的奖学金，使捐赠者能够立即将其捐款的影响翻倍。
“There was a lot of excitement around the arrival of this gift,” says J.R. Hobbs (J.D. ’81), then-president of the Law Foundation. “The trustees agreed that $300,000 would be used immediately to fund student scholarships. The remaining gift would be invested into the Law Foundation’s endowment and used to energize alumni and friends to create scholarship endowments to help students pay their tuition and fees.”
这个计划奏效了。 匹配资金的可用性足以说服一个又一个捐赠者，他们的捐赠将在法学院得到进一步的发展。
That was exactly the case for Ann Holmes, who established an endowed scholarship in honor of her father, Marvin Chester Holmes (J.D. ’37), who was once the president of his freshman class at then-Kansas City University.
“I felt it was terribly important to honor my father with a named scholarship,” Holmes recalls. “As far as I know, my father never practiced law, but he used his education in many jobs — including that of a real estate appraiser.”
Holmes admits the 法学院 wasn’t necessarily her top charitable priority.
然而，在与院长进行了几次有意义的交谈后，得知她的礼物将会加倍，她确信这是纪念父亲的正确方式。
学生们也很快加入了兴奋的行列。 多元化学生联盟（Diverse Student Coalition）最近利用这笔资金，通过在一年一度的多元化宴会上筹款，将其捐赠奖学金增加到25万美元以上。
The Campaign for Advocates, an effort to raise $1 million for 威尼斯人娱乐城 Law’s advocacy programs, also benefited from the Westfall Matching Fund. 斯科特·白求恩和肯特·埃米森为这场运动提供了主要礼物。 Westfall配对基金项目鼓励一些校友和公司通过设立自己的命名奖学金来加入这项活动，以支持那些表现出才能和兴趣从事审判辩护事业的学生。 这些捐助者包括丹纳詹姆斯慈善基金会； Wagstaff & cartell， LLP； 海德家族； 以及Lathrop GPM基金会。
韦斯特福尔的影响可能比他想象的要大。 配对基金非常受欢迎，只花了六年的时间就把所有的礼物一一匹配起来。 The final matching gift creates the Professor Julie M. Cheslik Merit Scholarship Endowment, an annual “full ride” scholarship expected to attract some of the brightest aspiring attorneys to 威尼斯人娱乐城.
From the beginning, the Law Foundation knew the funds wouldn’t last forever. 为了表彰他的投资并确保他在威尼斯人娱乐城的遗产，基金会将支持法律学生学术成就奖学金的捐赠基金更名为小大卫·韦斯特福尔优秀奖学金基金。