Pueblo -- Preston Wallace, who with just a high school education went on to own the foundry in Fountain north of Pueblo, has left donations through his estate to both Colorado State University-Pueblo and Pueblo Community College. Wallace, who died in November of 2002, contributed through his estate more than $80,000 to the CSU-Pueblo Foundation and the PCC Foundation to enhance the educational experiences of students.

The gift to PCC is being used to help construct additional classrooms in its Gorsich Advanced Technology Center. Most of the classrooms will be used by the Pueblo Technical Academy, which relocated to PCC last year through the partnership that exists between the two entities.

After consulting with the University, Preston's widow, Helen, and son, Jim, directed more than $29,000 be used to fund unrestricted scholarships at CSU-Pueblo with the remainder to purchase a gas-fired pottery kiln. The Preston Wallace memorial kiln will be installed and dedicated later this fall.

"We used to have the college art students come out to the foundry to use it for casting," Mrs. Wallace remembered, "so we thought it would be a nice idea to honor Preston's life's work by paying for a new pottery kiln."

Preston Wallace graduated from Centennial High School and eventually bought the foundry in Fountain in 1956. Wallace sold it in 1963 and created a unitrust, with part of the funds to be designated to CSU-Pueblo and to PCC after his death.

"He always had an interest in education although he didn't have much," said Mrs. Wallace, of her late husband. "So we decided to give money to the colleges for whatever they needed. He told me was a big reader and studier growing up, and every week he would walk to the library on the other end of Pueblo and get an armload of books."

Mrs. Wallace lives in Pueblo, while Jim, 46, earned a degree from Colorado School of Mines and works as a tax preparer in Golden.

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