Celebrating 40 years with a gift in will

Simon and Alison Bull stepped onto campus for the first time 40 years ago in Autumn of 1983. Simon, eighteen years old and starting a BSc in Accounting, though would later change courses to a BSc in Mathematics and Computing. Alison, also eighteen years old and studying a BA in Mathematical Economics.

In 1983, the University was nearly twenty years old; Margaret Thatcher had been in office for four years and a pint in the Union bar cost a lot less than it does now.

What started as a convenient university choice, largely due its close distance from both their homes, but also its small but friendly nature, became one of the most important places for Simon and Alison. It became the place where their relationship began.  

They lived in the same, now iconic, towers block, William Morris, and took a common module in Mathematics. These mutual connections were the start of what is now a four decade-long relationship, enjoying a busy life and successful careers in IT and accounting before recently retiring.

In celebration of the 40th anniversary of starting their studies at Essex, and therefore their relationship, Simon and Alison updated their wills to leave a gift to the place where it all began. 

“What we learned in and outside the classrooms of our brutalist Colchester Campus shaped not just our education, but our core values, friendships, and the trajectory of our lives.

“But the landscape of education has evolved since our days as students. The cost is vastly different now. This is one of the reasons we’ve decided to leave a gift to Essex in our will.”

Simon and Alison have left a gift in their will to ‘do some good for future students’ and hope that the funds will help to ‘offer the same care and support for students and be as friendly as when we were there’. 

Knowing that the current needs of the University may differ to those at the time the money is inherited, Simon and Alison have left an unrestricted gift meaning that it can be used in the area of greatest need, whenever the time comes. 

“Legacies like ours are important, both for people to be remembered and also as so sensibly tax efficient.” 

Gifts in will, often referred to as legacies, are a vital source of planned funding for charitable organisations like the University of Essex and give you the chance to recognise the legacy of a pivotal time in your life while creating a new one for future generations of Essex students.

By leaving a gift to Essex, you too become part of the story of philanthropy that our very own University was founded on sixty years ago. 

To find out more about giving a gift in your will, visit our legacy page.