4 minute read
Couple Makes a Case for Giving
Scott, ’89, and Christine Taylor experienced different higher education journeys that both led to successful careers as lawyers. Scott credits two former professors in the Political Science program at the University of Central Missouri, Jerald Adams and James Young, with encouraging him to go to law school. He calls law “the Swiss army knife of degrees.”
Like a Swiss army knife, an unrestricted fund allows a university to perform many different functions in order to meet a variety of student needs. Scott witnessed the need for unrestricted donations again and again during his 13 years on the UCM Alumni Foundation Board of Directors and former UCM Alumni Association Board.
“A very small slice of our total money is unrestricted, and it really ties the foundation board’s hands if there’s an emergency that needs to be met,” he explains. “We have to have a portion of unrestricted funds that are banked away for a rainy day.”
Scott served as president of the Alumni Foundation Board from 2020 to 2022, during which time he and Christine chose to make a planned gift to UCM’s unrestricted fund, the Central Annual Fund. The couple was motivated to give to this fund to support the university’s greatest current needs and provide just-in-time financial assistance for students at risk of dropping out — sometimes over a balance of less than $1,000.
“Until I joined the board, I didn’t understand how little the state actually contributes to the cost of a public education and what has to be done to make up the difference,” Scott says.
Christine has also played key leadership roles in higher education since graduating from the University of Valparaiso School of Law and obtaining her Master of Law from the University of Missouri School of Law. She returned to her native state of Wisconsin to work as an adjunct professor, then Title IX coordinator, at Marquette University in Milwaukee, where Scott earned his juris doctorate. She also served as director of equity and compliance at Wichita State University before becoming Equal Opportunity Officer and Title IX Coordinator for the University of Oklahoma.
“Unless you’re involved in higher education, you really don’t understand the impact that it has on an individual’s life and their earning capacity going forward,” Christine says. “It can be very life-changing and transformational to have that degree.”
Christine recently took a position as senior counsel at Husch Blackwell in Milwaukee, the city where Scott has served for 25 years as a managing partner and attorney at Urban & Taylor S.C. The couple raised their daughter, Caroline, in Milwaukee, and she is now following in her parents’ footsteps, completing her final year at the University of Kansas School of Law.
Scott, who grew up in Columbia, Missouri, came to UCM on a football scholarship to play under Coach Terry Noland, who at the time had been in that position for only two years. Noland led the Mules to an MIAA championship win his first year of coaching in 1983, and Scott started as a freshman punter in 1985. A year later, the team launched a three-year conference championship winning streak that lasted through Scott’s senior year.
“He was fiery,” Scott says of his beloved coach. “He was hard on us, but he also knew when to let up. He let us know that he believed in us and that we were good enough.”
Coach Noland was named MIAA Coach of the Year in 1986, and Scott was inducted with that year’s undefeated conference team into the UCM Athletic Hall of Fame. He and other teammates in a group of alumni and supporters called Muleball Brothers for Life raised funds to renovate and rededicate the Terry Noland Football Office Complex on Sept. 7, 2024. An office space bears Scott’s and Christine’s names, as does a football locker in the stadium’s locker room.
Scott and Christine enjoy coming back to campus to watch Mules Football, knowing their contributions and planned gift help current and future UCM students continue their legacy of excellence.
