Ellis Kurtz Gery

Lee and Ellis Gery

"Why do I give financially now and plan to give more to the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation after I die?" asks Ellis Kurtz Gery, Northwestern. "Simply because Kappa, as an organization and the people in it, both in college and in my life now, has had a huge influence on me."

Ellis not only followed in her family's Kappa tradition but kept it going into the next generation. Her grandmother, Maybelle Kurtz Bradley, Ohio State; her aunt, Mary Virginia Kurtz Ebinger, Ohio State; and her mother, Ellis Morris Kurtz, Ohio State, were all Kappas. Additionally, her daughter Shawn Gery Trippel, Purdue; her daughter-in-law, Lori Brazil Gery, Michigan; and her daughter-in-law's mother, Harriet Myers Brazil, Kansas State, are members too!

When Ellis and her husband moved from her hometown of Columbus, Ohio, to Indianapolis, she didn't know anyone or have friends to rely on. She quickly joined the local Kappa alumnae association. But, at that time, the group was made up of a series of smaller groups. Each was centered on the four nearby schools with a collegiate chapter (i.e., Indiana University, Purdue University, DePauw University and Butler University). "Since there were those of us who didn't go to college in Indiana, a group of us got permission to form an 'out-of-state group,'" Ellis recalls. The newly formed group became so active that it energized and united the wider association, forming friendships that last a lifetime.

It's the Kappa friendships that matter most to Ellis and she hopes others will join her in funding the future of friendship. "By making a legacy gift to the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation through the Omega Society, the leadership, scholarship and friendship opportunities Kappa offers will continue to be enjoyed by many more young daughters and women in the future," she says.