Cal S. and Irene D. Taggart Scholarship Fund

Cal and Irene Taggart’s scholarship endowment is a tribute to their belief in supporting the future of the Big Horn Basin by providing opportunity for area young people to grow and succeed.

Cal Taggart was born and raised in Cowley, Wyoming, and Irene grew up in Lovell. The two of them met at an LDS Church dance, where Cal and his basketball team were checking coats. “Dad’s team was checking coats, and here came my beautiful mom. Love at first sight,” says daughter Dana. They were married in Salt Lake City in 1945, and they went to college at BYU in Provo, Utah after a brief stint in Norfolk, VA where Cal was in the Navy.

After college, they returned to Lovell, WY, where Cal went to work in his father’s life insurance business, the Taggart Agency, and Irene worked as a legal secretary for the Bowman and Bowman Law Firm until their children were born. They raised their two children, Todd and Dana, with the idea that there was never any question everyone in their family would go to college.

Cal Taggart served on the Northwest College Foundation board for several years, and he believed that NWC provided an important educational opportunity for kids in the Big Horn Basin who could not afford to leave home to attend college. After Cal’s death, Irene set up their endowment with the NWC Foundation as a Charitable Gift Annuity. In doing so she received income during her lifetime, knowing NWC students would ultimately benefit from their shared vision for investing in the future through scholarships to NWC students.