PHILANTHROPY

PHILANTHROPY Gifts to a Beloved Alma Mater

They didn’t graduate from the Hill—their husbands did. Why these four widows continue to support Norwich

BY SARAH RUTH BATES

Myrna Schultz W’60 met her husband-to-be, Richard Schultz ’60, on a weekend. “The following week,” she says, “he had already taken me to see Norwich.” Richard “adored the school. He felt that Norwich made him into the human being that he was. And all of that translated into me.” Myrna has continued to give to Norwich in the years since Richard’s passing.

Other widows who have continued to give to the school feel similarly. Nancy Samia W’61 says that Norwich helped her husband, Roger Samia ’61, “become the man that he was.” Mary Jo Segal W’60 says that for husband Jason, “Norwich was the beacon.”

He “attributed all his success to Norwich,” Mary Jo says. Jason worked in the jewelry business. In that line of work, you could only succeed as far as your word was trusted. His word was. “He was known as a man who was scrupulously honest, and that is Norwich. You told the truth.” Jason sold custom jewelry for years, until a Harry Winston representative approached him. The rep said, “I’ve heard great things about you. You’re a man of your word.” So Segal got into the diamond business. “If he said it was a Color D diamond, it was a Color D diamond,” Mary Jo says. “And he attributed his good reputation to what was expected of him at Norwich. Your word was your honor.”

That integrity extended beyond the workplace. Mary Jo told their daughter, “If you’re smart, you will never lie to your dad. He’ll know, and he will appreciate the truth. And she really took it to heart and turned into a wonderful mother and person.”

Norwich became family to these widows’ husbands and to the women themselves. Roger Samia’s father had passed away when Roger was only eight years old. Because of that, Nancy says, “Norwich had a very profound influence on who he was, for his whole life.” Roger and his classmates “were all like extended family. It was a very warm situation. I don’t know of any other school that was like that. It was a wonderful thing.”

Joyce Oliver’s W’51 family connection to Norwich has continued through her granddaughter, Emily, Class of 2019. Emily “made us all proud with what she did at Norwich. Her grandfather would be so proud of her.” This past year, Emily walked the Norwich stage a second time, to graduate with her master’s degree. She wore her grandfather’s class ring on a chain.

Norwich wasn’t an easy four years for these widows’ late husbands. “It was always freezing cold,” Myrna Schultz recalls. Her spouse recalled that the radiator “would freeze solid.” “It was pretty old-school back then,” says Mary Jo Segal. Her husband Jason used to say, “By God, they’re not gonna get me down. I will finish this.”

That grit made the widows’ husbands who they were, and they never forgot it. Maureen Brennan, the widow of Francis X. Brennan ’64, remembers the time he addressed cadets in 1996 on the heels of a recent accident. “He looked like he’d been run over by a Vermont tractor,” she recalls, but he still went. “He was all dolled up in a navy-blue blazer and a white shirt and cargo shorts, because he couldn’t get pants on” due to his injuries. “He was on his crutches, in a spotlight, speaking to the cadets. He referenced the motto of the school, which was a personal go-to for him: ‘I Will Try. Always, I Will Try.’” That day, Francis showed up. So Maureen and her daughter keep showing up, too, in his memory. They

HONORED ALUMNUS Francis X. Brennan, one of NU’s most highly decorated Vietnam Veterans, is the among the 78 alumni celebrated on the 2019 Bicentennial Stairs.

Photo by Mark Collier

established the Francis X. Brennan ’64 Scholarship. Norwich, Maureen says, “was a significant part of Fran’s life. It became a significant part of our life.”

Before he passed, Richard Schultz made his own funeral arrangements. He chose Norwich as one of two beneficiaries for donations given in his name. “Richie loved Norwich, everybody knew that,” his widow Myrna says. “Everybody knew that if you gave money to Norwich, you were giving to the most beloved piece of Richie’s life.”

A year after his death, Myrna established the Richard S. Schultz ’60 Symposium Fellowship. “It was just a natural thing,” she says. “I continue to give to honor Richie. That’s his legacy. And he would be so proud.”

This past year, Myrna’s daughter threw her a surprise 80th birthday party. “I didn’t need any gifts,” she says, “but if they wanted to do something, they could give to Norwich. In honor of my birthday, and in memory of Richie.” n