From Abby Lee, Associate Vice President. College & Public Relations. Treasure Valley Community College
After months of planning and finalizing details, Treasure Valley Community College and the TVCC Foundation are formally announcing who made a million-dollar donation to TVCC, as well as the new name for TVCC’s Career & Technical Education Center.
“The TVCC Foundation is thrilled to announce that former Ontario area residents Gerald and Sharon Findley (née Johnson) are the philanthropic donors of the $1 million gift to the college,” according to Cathy Yasuda, Foundation Executive Director.
Yasuda said the generous contribution will be used to provide on-going support for the new Career & Technical Education Center in the way of scholarships for CTE/STEM programs, students with physical disabilities, and will also provide funding for future program development and equipment needs in the CTE area. 
Florence Findley
“This gift is such a profound and powerful statement about the value of higher education and CTE programs,” said TVCC President Dr. Dana M. Young. “The transformational educational opportunities created by this gift will have a visible and sustained impact for generations of students to come. Most of all, this generosity will enable future students who otherwise would not be able to attend college to access that opportunity.”
“This is an incredible donation to the college and marks the single largest gift the TVCC Foundation has received from an individual donor,” Yasuda added.
In recognition of the significance of this donation and the donor’s intent, TVCC will name the new Career & Technical Education Center in honor of Gerald’s grandmother, Florence Findley, who was a teacher at the Lincoln Heights school in Ontario. A naming ceremony and community celebration is being planned for late April and more information will be released soon.
Gerald Findley was born in Nyssa, Oregon, attended school at Lincoln Heights, Vale, and graduated from Ontario High School where he was the valedictorian for the class of 1958. While in high school, Gerald lived full time with his grandparents Iven and Florence Findley on their Lincoln Heights farm and suffered the loss of his left hand in a farming accident in 1956. He went on to attend and graduate from Oregon State University and then achieved a long and successful career with IBM for 30 years and Storage Technology Corporation for five years in the areas of executive engineering management of product development organizations, systems architecture and design, and other related work. Gerald retired in July of 2000. Gerald’s wife, Sharon, attended Vale High School and they have been married for 61 years. They have four children, numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and now live in Goodyear, Ariz., and Atascadero, Calif.
Yasuda said Gerald, who was raised in Malheur County, wanted to “pay it forward” and help the local area.
“With his own physical disability, he also wanted to support others who experience physical challenges of their own. His grandmother played a monumental role in his life and his generous gift to TVCC and the naming of the new CTE Center is to honor her legacy,” Yasuda added.
