The USCA and the Alumni Association’s Board of Directors voted in April, 2003 to create the Arnold D. Bogart Legacy Society in honor of one of the USCA’s most generous benefactors. Members of this society are those who have pledged to name the USCA in their estate plans and who make major contributions to help ensure the co-ops' future.

There are ways to minimize taxes and support your favorite non-profit organization. By naming the USCA as a recipient in your will, living trust, retirement plan, or insurance policy, the benefits of your investment in us will increase exponentially.

For more information please contact Jordan Pelot-Whitcomb the Alumni Coordinator at jordan@usca.org, or call 510 848-1936.

Bogie’s story:

Bogie was born in Harbin, Manchuria. Speaking only Russian, he immigrated with his family to Los Angeles during the Depression. Finances prevented Bogie coming to Cal as a freshman, so he attended junior college and transferred to UC Berkeley to earn a degree in mechanical engineering in 1943.

Since the early 1970s, Bogie’s gifts to the Bogie Bogart Bear Bucks-In-Aid Fund have been generous and consistent and the $40,000 fund yields as many as ten grants each year.

In the ‘80s, Bogie sent the USCA $10,000 for the Bogie Bogart Bear Bucks Athletic Fund. However, this fund was set up for Intercollegiate Athletics (which at the time was all men). The USCA Board of Directors, dismayed that Bogie would send money to benefit men only, returned his check. Bogie, unaware that it did not include women, sent the first check back, along with a second $10,000 check “for the girls.”

According to Bogie, “The co-ops were great. They helped me to understand, get along, and work with different types of people. Without the co-ops I probably would not have been able to get through Cal as easily. The co-ops helped me, so I decided to help others…. It is as simple as that.” When asked what he would do differently at Cal, if he had the chance to do it all over again, Bogie added, “Probably, not a thing…except, perhaps, study even less.”

Bogie died in November 2000. Friends and family remember him as an interesting and colorful character who wanted to help college students in situations similar to his own. Bogie’s widow, Rosanna, continues to manage his investments, which provide a monthly income stream to the USCA. The USCA is also a named beneficiary in the Bogart estate.

Alumni who have named the USCA in their wills or estate plans, or who have made arrangements with the University to establish a planned gift that will one day benefit the Students’ Co-op Scholarship fund, are invited to join the Arnold Bogart Legacy Society.