Elmer “Pete” and Abby Gudmundsen were lifelong supporters of agricultural research in Nebraska
The ranch – Rafter C Ranch – became the Gudmundsen Sandhills Research Center and now serves as a 12,800-acre research and educational facility.
The couple retired from ranching in the late 1970s and donated their ranch to the University of Nebraska Foundation to be used by the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
The ranch – Rafter C Ranch – became the Gudmundsen Sandhills Research Center and now serves as a 12,800-acre research and educational facility.
An additional $300,000 endowment from the couple supports the research at the center.
“The gift of the Gudmundsen ranch created a very unique research and educational facility for the university,” said Irvin Omtvedt, University of Nebraska-Lincoln vice president and vice chancellor emeritus. “The Gudmundsen Sandhills Research Center has given us the opportunity to do range livestock and environmental research that is very important to regions like this area of Nebraska.”
“Furthermore, the center combines the cooperative research efforts of faculty from UNL, the West Central Research and Extension Center in North Platte and the Panhandle Research and Extension Center in Scottsbluff.”
The couple has a long giving history with the university. They donated funds for more than 20 years.
They made an estate gift of more than $2 million, which was used to help build the George W. Beadle Center at UNL.
Part of that gift was also used to create two scholarships, which will forever help students.
A $150,000 endowment formed an excellence fund to benefit the Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture.
“The support provided by the Gudmundsens points to their vision and wisdom and the confidence they had in NCTA,” said Don Woodburn, former dean of NCTA.
The couple was also very dedicated to the region in which they lived.
They provided funding to the Panhandle Educational Center in Scottsbluff, the West Central Extension Center and several agricultural programs in central and western Nebraska.
They also gave $100,000 to support a gallery for western art.
The Gudmundsens died in 1993 but their lifelong support has enabled students at the university to do what the couple loved: researching agriculture in Nebraska.
