University System receives $925,000 bequest

The Chancellor’s Office of the Oregon University System announced Monday that a former OUS employee has bequeathed $925,000 to the system from her estate.

Jessie May Bork, who passed away in April of 2005, was a graduate of both Oregon State University and the University of Oregon. She later worked in the Chancellor’s Office and the School of Business at UO. Bork directed in her will that the funds be used as a permanent endowment for OUS, based on “the desire of my deceased husband, Herbert A. Bork.”

The will directed that the endowment earnings from the bequest be used to “improve the quality of education and research” provided by OUS.

Herbert Bork was also an OUS employee, serving as vice chancellor for business affairs, before retiring in the late 1960s.

“The Bork’s generosity will be a legacy to the state that will benefit our public universities, its students, faculty and communities in very important ways,” George Pernsteiner, chancellor of the OUS, said in a press release. “It also will help spur on the academic inquiry and innovation that is at the heart of much of the progress in our society.”