BUSINESS BUILDING GOAL SURPASSED WITH SCHMITZ GIFT

The Southeast Missouri University Foundation has surpassed its local goal of $2.4 million set for a new College of Business Administration building, thanks to a major gift received in the will of a late Cape Girardeau resident.

Foundation officials said Wednesday that Leota Schmitz, who died earlier this year, has bequeathed $100,000 to help build a new College of Business Administration building at Southeast Missouri State University.

With this gift and others donated for the building through the "New Vision of Excellence" capital campaign, pledges now total more than $2.5 million, officials said.

Schmitz bequeathed the funds in memory of her late husband, H.G. Schmitz, a long-time Cape Girardeau businessman who operated the former Tucker Truck Lines.

As a result of her bequest, Leota Schmitz became a charter member of the Southeast Missouri University Foundation's Horizon Club during its initial charter membership year.

"This wonderful gift from the Schmitz family is a very important ingredient in the mix of gifts that we have received from our constituencies throughout Southeast Missouri, the St. Louis region and the nation," said Robert Foster, executive director of the foundation.

"This bequest will enable the foundation to abundantly match its original $2.4 million goal needed as a local match to state appropriated funds," said Foster. "Hopefully, this gift will inspire the Missouri General Assembly to appropriate the balance of monies needed to build this new, landmark College of Business Administration building."

The proposed site of the new building is at the corner of New Madrid and North Henderson.

"This building will serve our business students well, and it will become a major landmark on the north end of the campus," Foster said. "Certainly an investment in the education of our young people represents one of the best hopes that our city, and indeed our nation, has for the future. Through this gift, Mrs. Schmitz has affected the lives of untold numbers of people in perpetuity."