Jefferson City banker Sam Cook thinks every college student should have a strong background in economics. That's why he recently donated $2.55 million to the economics department at the University of Missouri-Columbia to fund an endowed chair in macroeconomics.

"An educated person needs to have a basic knowledge of economics," said Cook, 85, who graduated with special honors in economics from Yale University after serving in World War II. "It doesn't have the same sex appeal as some of these other issues."