Former Resident Benefits Bloomfield With Gift of Land
Robert Harm
A life-long interest in Bloomfield’s early history and county fair activities led a former Bloomfield-area resident, the late Robert Harm of Richardson, Texas, to make generous gifts to the Bloomfield Community Historical Society and to construct the Harm and Tulleys Agriculture Center, a multi-purpose agriculture center at the Knox County Fairgrounds. His donations continued a long history of giving by Harm’s family to the Knox County community.
Harm made a gift of land from the family ranch along Lewis and Clark Lake during his lifetime to fund these projects through the Bloomfield Community Foundation Fund, an affiliated fund of the Nebraska Community Foundation. Because he donated the land, he did not have to pay capital gains tax on its appreciated value, and he received a charitable income tax deduction for the fair market value of the donated land.
“This method of gifting works best with appreciated property,” said his attorney, Steve Archbold of Bloomfield. “By using the tax laws to his advantage, Robert was able to make a tremendous gift to the community and, at the same time, help himself through a substantial income-tax deduction.”
Harm designated $50,000 of the proceeds from the sale of the land to the Bloomfield Historical Society and $200,000 to the Agriculture Center.
Activities at the agriculture center revolve around horses and cattle but also include antique shows, farm and home shows, tractor and farm machinery events and other family-related programs, according to Sunny Nagengast of Bloomfield, who serves on the Knox County Agriculture Building Committee.
“My principal motivation for this gift was to honor my father and my uncle, Paul A. Tulleys,” Harm said prior to his death. “I am the last Harm of my generation. I decided it was up to me to do this.”
The Harm family moved to the gifted land along the Missouri River in 1933. It was the Depression, and “my father was broke and there was nothing in town for him, so somehow he made a down payment on a portion of what is now the ranch and started over,” Harm said.
Harm wanted other Knox County residents and former residents to consider charitable gifts to the community organizations they support. “If you want to make a gift, the way this was handled is a good way to do it. The sale of my ranch and the legal expertise of my lawyer, made it possible,” he said.
