Horton ‘68 commits $500,000 estate gift to Mansfield University Mountaineer Foundation

MANSFIELD, Pa. - Dick Horton ‘68 has committed a $500,000 unrestricted estate gift to the Mansfield University Mountaineer Foundation to support Commonwealth University – Mansfield students.

Unrestricted gifts provide the university with the flexibility to allocate funds where they are needed most, ensuring the greatest benefit for Mansfield students—whether through scholarships, academic programs, campus improvements, or student support services.

“We are deeply grateful for Dick Horton’s extraordinary generosity and lifelong connection to Mansfield,” said Bashar W. Hanna, president of Commonwealth University. “His remarkable gift ensures that future generations of students will have the same transformative opportunities that shaped his own journey. This legacy of support will have a profound and lasting impact on Mansfield.”

A native of Elkland, Pa., Horton’s journey to Mansfield began with a simple yet transformative experience—attending an opera workshop on campus. Inspired by that moment, he chose Mansfield for his undergraduate education, majoring in social studies education. As a student, Horton was very involved in campus life, serving as editor of the Flashlight student newspaper, student government treasurer, and student manager of The Hut.

“My years at Mansfield were some of the happiest of my life,” Horton explained. “Mansfield gave me what I needed at the time. I want to help recreate that experience for future students.”

After graduating from Mansfield in 1968, Horton taught at Chichester High School in Delaware County, Pa. for 11 years while also serving as the band director. He went on to work for the Close Up Foundation, a nonprofit and nonpartisan civic education organization in Washington, D.C., from 1984 to 2001. Horton moved back to Pennsylvania to live with his late husband in Kutztown.

While Horton does not consider himself a musician, he was friends with many music students at Mansfield and regularly returns to campus for university concerts and performances. He’s even traveled to the famed Carnegie Hall to watch performances by Mansfield students.

To learn more about the Mansfield University Mountaineer Foundation or to make a gift, visit mountaineerfdn.org.