Gifts That Pay You Back
Charitable Gift Annuity - Immediate

Helping to Close the Gap

Asked to name a cause that he is passionate about, Chat Chatterjee doesn't have to stop and think. "Education," he answers, calling it the "only thing that will close the gap between rich and poor." "The second thing I'm passionate about," he adds, "is technology" — not a surprising answer from a chemical engineer and former vice president of Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., but one which he supports by citing recent research showing how technology is key to a country's development.

Both of these beliefs — in education and technology — were behind the decision of Chat and his wife, Ellen, to make two life income gifts to UC Berkeley, Chat's alma mater. Just as importantly, the gifts offered the couple an added measure of financial security, and the peace of mind that comes with it.

Chat was born and raised in Jamshedpur, India, about 150 miles southwest of Calcutta. His father, an engineer, saw to it that his son received the best education. In 1959, his family moved to Calcutta, where he attended Calcutta University. Surrounded by "very good professors and students," he acquired "a deep knowledge of chemistry and chemical engineering" while also studying "a large amount of arts and humanities." There, he received a bachelor's degree in chemistry and both a bachelor's and a master's in chemical technology.

His hard work and training served him well, earning him admission to graduate study at Berkeley in chemical engineering. But once on campus, to his dismay, he quickly became aware of holes in his preparation. He didn't know Fortran, the indispensable programming language for scientific computing. He didn't know how to use a computer. He didn't even know how to type. In the beginning, he was studying "16 hours per day, seven days per week" just to catch up.

But things got better. As he puts it, Berkeley was "a hell of a lot of hard work, a hell of a lot of stress, followed by a great deal of fun." He found taking courses in such areas as industrial engineering, mechanical engineering, nuclear engineering, and operational sciences "a glorious experience."

Having grown up in Mansfield, Illinois, Ellen earned a B.A. in English from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She came to San Francisco in 1969 to work, moving into an apartment with her University of Illinois roommate. Her roommate's husband happened to be a Berkeley graduate student in chemical engineering — and Chat's lab partner. One day, Ellen was introduced to Chat, and the two hit it off. They were married March 21, 1970. The following year, upon Chat's completion of his Ph.D., the couple relocated to Allentown, Pennsylvania, where he began working at Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., a worldwide supplier of industrial gases and equipment, specialty and intermediate chemicals, and environmental and energy systems. After 33 years at Air Products, Chat retired in 2004 as vice president of environmental health and safety, and corporate engineering.

The Chatterjees decided from the beginning that they wouldn't wait until his retirement to see the world. In fact, travel has been one of the major themes of their life together. When Chat was in graduate school, they used his breaks to camp in national parks along the West Coast. Since then, they have traveled extensively in the United States and Canada and have made trips to Peru, Mexico, India ("a lot"), Australia, New Zealand, Egypt, Europe, and South Africa, among other places. In November, they will embark on a month-long cruise from Gibraltar to Brazil and eventually the southern tip of Argentina as participants in one of Cal's Bear Treks.

But Chat has always kept in close contact with his alma mater, and often their travels take them back to Berkeley. Just a year after moving to Pennsylvania, he began yearly trips to campus as an Air Products recruiter, trips on which Ellen would often accompany him. In addition, he served as chair of the College of Chemistry Advisory Board from 1996 to 1998 and has sat on the board ever since. Now, he returns to Berkeley at least once a year to meet with the board and visit friends.

The Chatterjees have several reasons for wanting to support Berkeley. The first is their appreciation for what the University contributes to society. "Nobody does grad teaching better than the United States," Chat remarks, "and Berkeley is one of the best of the best — that's a great plus for the 3 Cal Futures future of our country." He goes on to note that the University is "a big importer of talent to California" and cites an impressive statistic: "About ninety percent of graduate students in the College of Chemistry are from out of state; of those, 30 to 40 percent stay in California after receiving their degree."

Another motivation is their personal connection to Berkeley. As Chat says, "The University has done so much for us, we wanted to do something for it. Our memories are so wonderful." A third, and equally important, reason is that supporting Cal through life income gifts makes "financial sense." Chat tells how, when he retired, "everybody said, 'you're crazy,'" because almost all of the Chatterjees' assets were in his company's stock. So Ellen suggested they create a gift annuity at Cal and another at the University of Illinois — planned gifts that would pay them guaranteed annual incomes for life while allowing them to support their alma maters.

Later, Chat and Ellen established at Berkeley a charitable remainder trust, which will pay a flexible income for life, after which the trust's remaining assets will revert to the University. Besides income and potential growth, the Chatterjees are pleased with the other benefits offered by their gift annuity and charitable remainder trust at Cal: no immediate capital gains tax on their donated assets, allowing the full value of their gift to be reinvested; favorable income tax treatment on their income; an income tax charitable deduction; and significant portfolio diversification.

In addition to their life income gifts, the couple makes a sizable annual contribution to the chemical engineering department, and their estate plan designates that nearly half of their estate will eventually go to Berkeley.

And what do they think about the generous support they are providing for Cal? "We do what little we can," says Chat, with characteristic humility.

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