Retired businessman donates $100K to Skaggs Foundation

The foundation raises philanthropic funding for educational and patient scholarships, furnishings, equipment and capital improvements. This is the second year the Combses have donated that amount.

Leon Combs owns Beaver Creek Elk and Cattle Ranch and previously operated a Josten’s franchise and owned Sanford-Brown College in St. Louis before retiring. Combs, who has a journalism degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia, has written “Bradleyville Basketball, the Hicks from the Sticks” and “Bradleyville: My Hometown.”

Combs, also president of the Skaggs Community Health Center board, said he and his wife gave the donation to share their good fortune with others while taking advantage of the federal Charitable Giving Act. The legislation, which lasts through the end of the year, allows individuals who are at least 70K years old to move assets directly from an individual retirement account to qualified charities without paying taxes on the money withdrawn. Before the bill became law last year, IRA owners would have had to pay as much as 40 percent in federal and state taxes on a $100,000 gift.

Combs has been active on boards of various organizations, including University of Missouri Extension Council, Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, Boatmen’s and Mark Twain banks, Ozark Writers League and White River Valley Historical Society. He joined the Skaggs board in 1996 and is a past Skaggs Foundation president.