ESF College Foundation
Donor Profile David Wyman

Esteeming the Pragmatic

By Judy Gelman Myers

David Wyman, president of the ESF College Foundation Board of Directors, generously shares his time and financial resources with ESF out of profound admiration for the school, its faculty and staff, and their mission.

“I deeply respect the work ESF does, how inexpensively it educates as many students as it can, and the students themselves. They donʼt just talk about making a difference, theyʼre doing something about it right now.”

Wyman is an insurance agent in upstate New York, who grew up in a rural agricultural area. When approached about joining the foundation board, Wyman didnʼt hesitate: ESFʼs no-nonsense ethos resonated with his own childhood experience. “I spent summers plowing fields on my unclesʼ farms, delivering calves, harvesting corn and beans. Iʼve always related to people who put their boots on every day and do the work that needs to be done without asking to be honored for it. Just like the folks at ESF.”

As president, Wyman uses his expertise in insurance and finance to benefit the foundation. Under his tenure, the board found a new investment advisor and slogged through an insurance analysis with their broker. “It sounds mundane, but itʼs behind-the-scenes stuff that has to be done so the foundation can keep moving forward, keep
growing, keep advocating for the students and providing that scholarship money.”

Wyman makes his own contributions to ESF through the NYS Charitable Tax Credit program, which allows 85% of any gift to qualify for a non-refundable New York State tax credit. “It looked too good to pass up, so I asked my accountant, and he said it all checked out. Iʼm giving money to an institution that can use it and the math makes sense for me. Itʼs a win-win situation.”

But that payoff pales next to Wymanʼs greatest reward: hearing ESF students discuss their plans at the scholarship luncheon. “The comedian George Carlin had no use for people who talk about saving the planet and just hand out commandments like you
should be recycling, you should be marching. When you hear the ESF students speak, you realize how special they are. They have a mission. Itʼs all ʻI want to improve this or Iʼm going to resolve that.ʼ No pie-in-the-sky. Nothing esoteric. They have actual plans.”

Once again, the synchrony between Wyman and ESF resonates. “I try to do volunteer work thatʼs not a mile wide and an inch deep, but rather the other way around. With ESF, the more involved I get, the more I like it and the more rewarded I am by the effort that I put into it.

“At ESF, everyoneʼs oars are in the water, rowing the boat in the same direction. Thereʼs so much focus on the negative in this world that being a part of the students and the people who are running this place helps me feel better about the future. It just makes me feel better about why Iʼm here.”