Karen (Kari) Blair ’70 Honors Her Hood Roommate and Best Friend with an Endowed Scholarship

Karen (Kari) Blair is establishing an endowed scholarship to honor her freshman year roommate and best friend Karin Ninesling Infuso.

Karen (Kari) Blair met her soon-to-be best friend the very first day she entered Hood College. That friendship, which would last for nearly 50 years, was just one of the benefits of attending Hood and one of the reasons the College is part of Karen’s annual giving and her estate plan today.

Karen chose to attend Hood after a neighbor, then a senior at the College, shared her Hood College yearbooks. “I fell in love with Hood before I even visited the campus,” she recalls.

Once settled on the fourth floor of Coblentz Hall, Karen met many fellow freshmen—including Karin Ninesling Infuso. The two became fast friends and would remain so until Infuso’s death in 2017.

“Over the past half century, the two of us, often with families in tow, travelled together, celebrated life’s big events and attended every Class of 1970 reunion,” Karen says. To honor her friend, Karen has committed part of her annual giving and a bequest in her will to establish a scholarship in Infuso’s name.

Annual contributions of cash, appreciated stocks or other assets have immediate tax benefits for donors while giving current students the resources they need to excel. Bequests leave donors free to make changes to their beneficiary designations during their lifetimes and provide future gifts to Hood free of federal estate taxes.

Retired after a 42-year career as a member of the faculty and administration at Towson University, Karen worked with the planned giving office at Hood to make her endowed scholarship a reality. The result is a legacy that will benefit future students while honoring a wonderful friend.

As Karen says, her friend “would be pleased to know her scholarship will provide other students with the opportunity to enjoy the ‘complete Hood experience’ that we both valued so much.”