UC Santa Cruz - Giving: Mura-smith Profile

Stories of Support

A planned gift by Kit Mura-smith (Merrill ’75) will benefit the programs that helped her as a student.

Kit Mura-smith

A year at UC Santa Cruz made all the difference for Kit Mura-smith (Merrill '75), and now she's making a difference for other UCSC students. Mura-smith has made a major planned gift to benefit the University Library as well as scholarships through Services for Transfer and Re-Entry Students, the same program that enabled Mura-smith to finish her degree when she was a single parent of three young children. "UCSC welcomed me and provided the support I needed to complete my degree in one year without working," said Mura-smith, who entered UCSC as a senior transfer. "I was able to focus on my final major and do nothing but that the last three quarters, and it was a very intellectually stimulating time."

When Mura-smith came to UCSC, she already had enough units from Colorado College and Pomona College to graduate--but not enough in one subject area to complete a major. "I hadn't looked at UCSC as the place to go, but I was in the right place at the right time," said Mura-smith, who was studying at Cabrillo College when the faculty there encouraged her to apply for a re-entry student grant to complete her degree at UCSC.

At a time when the women's liberation movement and increasing numbers of single parents were reshaping U.S. and campus demographics, UCSC took a lead in giving grants that provided re-entry students with crucial support. "It was a program that really recognized a social need, and I was fortunate enough to get a grant," said Mura-smith. "That's why I really want my money to go to individuals who are going back to school, who have to start over for whatever reason, to give them the same opportunities that were given to me."

Both Mura-smith and future students will benefit from her generosity. By funding her gift through a charitable remainder trust, Mura-smith realized a charitable tax deduction in the year the trust was established. She will also receive yearly income during the life of the trust. Upon termination of the trust, the remaining assets will be transferred to the University Library and scholarships for re-entry students. "It's very practical," said Mura-smith. "It's a way of giving that more people should think about."

At UCSC, Mura-smith majored in applied social anthropology. "I'm Japanese and I grew up after WWII. When I left home for the first time to go to college in the early ’60s, I realized how different my worldview was--I had a major identity crisis," she said. "That got me to begin thinking about what makes people who they are."

Applied social anthropology provided a valuable background for her interests and future careers. Mura-smith went on to law school and then entered the technology industry, eventually becoming the only non-engineer partner in a start-up company specializing in global positioning systems. As founding vice president at Trimble Navigation, Mura-smith first successfully mediated between the cultures of engineering and manufacturing—ensuring that creative ideas were reliably transformed into replicable products—and then between the cultures of engineering and marketing.

She used similar skills as chair of the visioning committee for the new McHenry Library expansion project, encouraging the integration of 21st-century information technology with the traditional print resources environment. By designating part of her gift to the library, Mura-smith hopes to ensure continuing technological innovation in the UCSC library of the future.

"A good education teaches you how to think, and how to use the information around you and apply it to the problems at hand," said Mura-smith. "UCSC teaches and encourages us to think independently. It offers a breadth of ideas and viewpoints and an environment that allows one to explore."