Honoring Her Roots

Sally Hoey establishes a charitable gift annuity to support her father’s UND legacy and the scholarship endowment he started.

Sally (Denk) Hoey lives in West Chester, Pennsylvania. She did not attend the University of North Dakota or grow up in North Dakota, and she has no living family in the Peace Garden State.

Still, her ties are strong. Sally fondly recalls the English Coulee running through campus and the majesty of North Dakota’s night sky after visiting in 1971. 

Her father William “Bill” E. Denk, ’32, ’33, “was born and raised in Sargent County, North Dakota,” Sally said. He graduated from UND with degrees in electrical engineering during the Great Depression. Work was hard to come by, so he settled into various positions with the North Dakota Highway Department.

My father loved North Dakota, and was so proud to go to UND.Sally (Denk) Hoey

In 1936, after years of seeking an engineering job, he followed the advice of a UND dean during a campus visit and enrolled in post-graduate work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After graduation, he began working in Philco’s patent department in Philadelphia.

When the time came for Sally and her husband, Tom, to discuss their philanthropic plans, she turned to the UND Alumni Association & Foundation. “My father loved North Dakota and was so proud to go to UND,” she said.

Sally started a charitable gift annuity that will benefit a scholarship endowment established by her parents with a charitable trust. Both options provide lifetime income to donors while impacting the University of North Dakota.

“Daddy was the one who taught me how to invest,” Sally said, “so that’s why UND came to mind right away. We would not be where we are today without my parents.”