Memorial and Honor Gifts

Would you like to give a gift in honor or memory of a family member, friend, classmate, colleague, or group? Such a gift is a meaningful way to honor or preserve the memory of someone special to you, and it can be an excellent way to commemorate a special occasion, a milestone, an anniversary, or other significant event. The Smathers Libraries are pleased to announce that, effective immediately, all PCMC memorial and honor gifts will be used to support the oral history program.

The oral history program was created to document the story of the Canal in the words of the people who lived it; capturing the details of life that are often not discussed in publications, not captioned in photographs, and not documented in other traditional ways. Your donations will help advance efforts to conduct oral history interviews that will be preserved as part of the PCMC for future generations. During the pandemic, we have shifted away from face-to-face interviews, and instead we are conducting interviews via telephone or online. We’re also hard at work transcribing so that the text of the interviews will be available along with the recordings as part of our online digital collection.

All memorial and honor gifts are tax deductible. If you donate any amount over $25, you automatically become a member of the Friends of the PCMC. When you give a gift of $50 or more in someone’s honor or memory, we will send a card or email to your designated honoree or a recipient you designate notifying them of your gift. These beautiful cards and email messages will feature scenes of the Canal from the collection. Your name and the name of the person or group you are honoring or memorializing will also be acknowledged on the PCMC website, on an interactive digital monitor in the Albert H. Nahmad Panama Canal Gallery at UF, and in the Canal Gator Tales email distributed to all Friends of the PCMC.

For gifts over $100, you have the opportunity to participate in our Books of Honor program. When you make a Books of Honor gift, a special PCMC bookplate will be placed inside a book in the collection and a virtual bookplate will be added to the online catalog. This will include your name and the name of the person or group you are honoring or memorializing. We try to select an appropriate book based on your preferences and your knowledge of your honoree’s interests.

To make a gift by check, please make your check payable to the “University of Florida Foundation/Panama Canal Museum Collection Endowment (017605).” Please indicate that it is an honor or memorial gift and provide the following information:

  • The honoree’s full name (an individual, a couple, or a group, such as a class).
  • Your contact information, including your email address.
  • The contact information for the honoree or another recipient you designate if you want them to receive an acknowledgment that the gift has been made in their honor or memory.
  • If applicable, the occasion being recognized such as an anniversary, birthday, or other event.

Please mail your check to the Office of Development, George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida, PO Box 117000, Gainesville, FL 32611-7000.

If you prefer to make your gift online rather than by check, please use the University of Florida Foundation gift page. Remember to indicate in the online form that your gift is in honor of or in memory of someone.

For more information, please contact John Nemmers at 352-273-2766 or jnemmers@ufl.edu. Thank you for your support!