Personal Giving Stories

Life Connections Inspire Bequest at UIUC

Richard, ’73 B.A., and Conna Oram, ’72 B.A., did not have to debate long about their legacy at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Their life story runs deep at Illinois.

Both sets of parents were Illinois graduates. Conna’s mother worked in circulation in the main library for Richard’s father, an academic librarian. “We both had access to the stacks as children, and I can remember reading LIFE magazines and more for hours,” Richard shares. The children, however, would not meet until graduate school.

Conna attended Urbana High School, while Richard remembers the rigor of University Laboratory High School: “I am grateful for my science background at UNI, though I did not enjoy the math courses,” he chuckles. “I got rewarded a lot in English.” Both of his parents were English majors, and his mother insisted on proper grammar.

English and European history interested Conna. “I had some very good teachers and got inspired to study medieval studies even more,” she said. Conna would often visit the Spurlock Museum with her mother.

Richard completed a Ph.D. at Cornell University, where he met Conna. “The pull of our hometown drew us together, and the rest is history,” Conna says. Richard later earned a master’s in Library and Information Science at the University of Texas in Austin and pursued a library career at UT’s Harry Ransom Center in Texas where he was head of library services. Conna taught high school Latin.

Now retired and active volunteers, the couple is grateful their estate gift honors their families’ values and history while making an impact on future generations. Their gift will support the department of English, the Spurlock Museum, UNI High School, and the library, including naming the Oram and Judy Families Reading Room in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library.