Deming man's secret wealth benefits New Mexico university
DEMING, N.M. (AP) — Cy Cress was a world traveler who visited exotic places and wrote stories about them for U.S. magazines in the years following World War II.
By all appearances, he was like so many others in Deming, living modestly on a fixed income.
[...] well, in fact, that in late 2014 he was able to make a $1 million contribution to the New Mexico State University Journalism Department.
[...] when he met with the Sun-News to discuss his donation on Jan. 28, 2015, he did so only on the condition that we would keep his secret until his death.
An Illinois native who grew up in Colorado, Cy was serving in the Pacific during WWII when he made a fateful decision.
"There were prostitutes that were allowed to come over and visit these guys, and that kind of curled up the toes of them at Argosy," he recalled.
When asked how he had acquired his wealth, Cy responded, I've been a saver, and I hit the stock market a few times.
To try to transfer feelings or emotions — joy or comedy or happiness — into these little things that we have developed.
The Cy Cress Excellence in Journalism scholarship has been started at NMSU in honor of Cy's sister, said Hwiman Chung, head of the Journalism Department.
Chung said the $1 million will help the university provide students with the technology they will need in the new world of journalism.