Fully Paid Life Insurance Policy to Fund Kingswood Campus Improvements

Emily Wayne Huling (l) and John White (r)

My husband John deserves the credit.

Twenty years ago, I was celebrating my 50th birthday and the ten-year anniversary of founding my consulting firm, Selling Strategies. Choked up with emotion, I was sharing with John how grateful I was to have parents who were committed to giving me the best high school education possible. Because we lived in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, that meant going to boarding school.

Kingswood was the perfect fit for me—single-gender education, a dormitory life that was both nurturing and disciplined under the watchful eye of Mrs. DeWitt, and classmates from many walks of life who welcomed this small-town girl into their lives and their homes. My Kingswood experience developed my confidence, communication, and leadership skills, which laid the foundation for building my business.

“What do you want to do to give back?” John asked. I didn’t know. It seemed John had already been thinking about it. John suggested I buy a whole life insurance policy to be fully paid in 20 years. Cranbrook Educational Community would be the beneficiary from the start—and when it was fully paid, I would transfer policy ownership to Cranbrook to use the money to support Kingswood in the best way possible.

So here I am 20 years later, 70 years old, retiring from Selling Strategies after a rewarding 30-year run and fulfilling my long-term legacy giving plan to the school I love. How good it feels to help ensure that future young women and men will have the educators, facilities, and resources at Cranbrook Kingswood to build good and purposeful lives of their own.

—Emily Wayne Huling K’72