Late Fort Smith City Administrator Ray Gosack gifts $750,000 to universities

The estate of the late Fort Smith City Administrator Ray Gosack has gifted $750,000 to the University of Arkansas (UA) and University of Arkansas at Fort Smith (UAFS).

Gosack provided a $500,000 gift to establish the Raymond W. Gosack Masters of Public Administration Endowment at the UA and an additional $250,000 that will be directed to the UAFS political science department.

Officials from the UA and UAFS announced the gift at a ceremony on Wednesday (June 7), noting the endowment will provide ongoing support for the program, “which aims to provide a broad, flexible foundation to prepare students for careers in public service for the government, non-governmental organizations, and the nonprofit business sector,” the universities stated in a press release. The MPA program is housed in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.

Gosack was an alumnus of the UA, and was a B-52 pilot in the U.S. Air Force. After his military service he began working with the city of Fort Smith in 1985 before moving to Illinois and working other positions in municipal government. He returned to Fort Smith in 1999 to serve as deputy administrator for 12 years and was named city administrator in 2011. He held the position until his retirement in 2015 and died from an unexpected illness in October 2016.

UAFS Chancellor Paul Beran remarked on Wednesday that hearing of Gosack’s death “took the air out of the room,” and thanked him for “his great intelligence, legendary memory, affection for the St. Louis Cardinals … and always, his love for his family and friends.”

“But whatever else we remember, we always remember how much he loved the city of Fort Smith. Even after he retired, he remained engaged in the community, and we saw him often at public events,” Beran said, adding, “In his final days, Ray worked closely with John Taylor and Jerry Canfield to make sure that he strengthened the voices of institutions close to his heart. Without their hard work and dedication to seeing Ray’s final wishes honored, we would not be here today.”

Beran said UAFS had already made an award to a student they believe Gosack would have admired. Beran named Keimi Driscoll as the recipient, explaining she “is in Washington, D.C., right now participating in a special internship.”

“She’s a 25-year-old nontraditional student, who has worked two jobs for the last three years to put herself through school. She’s studying political science and international business. With a $2,000 award from Ray’s request, Keimi will spend her summer at the Washington Center,” Beran said.

The Washington Center is an independent nonprofit that offers students a chance to work in the nation’s capital, gain practical experience and college credit, and polish leadership skills.

“Keimi will be working with the international division in the National Conference of State Legislatures. She will provide research on different international policies as she helps the organization prepare for its legislative summit in Boston in August. She knows this is an experience she couldn’t have experienced without this award,” Beran said.

As Beran mentioned in his address, Driscoll was not in attendance at Wednesday’s ceremony, but did provide a written statement, saying she was “extremely grateful to Ray Gosack for making this opportunity available to me.”

“The people I will meet, the experience I will receive, and the knowledge I will gain from the entire experience, are something I could never have attained through my own limited resources,” Driscoll said. “The field I want to go in to is not necessarily easy to get in to, but Washington, D.C., is the best place to go if you want to try. Without the Ray Gosack funding, I never would have gotten the opportunity to try.”

Driscoll plans to attend graduate school and study international relations.

Mark Power, UA vice chancellor for university advancement, added that the university was “deeply humbled” by the gift and pointed to donations like Gosack’s that have helped “take the university to a whole new level.”

“That giving has helped us better serve our state through the creation of need- and merit-based scholarships, strengthen programs, upgrade and expand facilities, and be more competitive for recruiting and retaining outstanding faculty,” Power said. “We are deeply indebted to Ray and alumni like him who cherished the education they received at the university and wish to pay it forward.”

Dr. Todd Shields, dean of the Fulbright College, said he was “regretful” he never had the chance to meet Gosack, especially “hearing the number of things he has done for Fort Smith and the state.”

“He’s just an incredible individual. I really can’t think of any other way to perpetuate and continue Ray’s legacy of the epitome of servant leadership except for an endowment in his name at the University of Arkansas, and we will use that gift to help students and faculty in public administration, students who are going into the same kind of career that Ray was in, and that kind of career is not something that just benefits the individual. It benefits every single individual they work with, and every single thing that they do.”

Shields continued: “In five years from now, this gift is literally going to help hundreds of students. In 10 years from now, it will help thousands of students. And 100 years from now, generations from now, students will still be helped by Ray Gosack’s generosity.”