Retired professor and elementary teacher pledge $1 million to Marquette for MPS scholarships
Marquette President Robert A. Wild, S.J., at his annual Pere Marquette address to faculty and administrators Thursday night, announced a $1 million pledge from the Zupkos to endow a scholarship fund for qualified MPS high school graduates.
(Media-Newswire.com) - He taught more than 10,000 college students. She taught hundreds of young children to read. Now, Dr. Ron and Mrs. Kay Zupko are working to ensure that graduates of the Milwaukee Public Schools have access to higher education at Marquette University.
Marquette President Robert A. Wild, S.J., at his annual Pere Marquette address to faculty and administrators Thursday night, announced a $1 million pledge from the Zupkos to endow a scholarship fund for qualified MPS high school graduates.
Ron Zupko, professor emeritus of history at Marquette, and Kay Zupko, a retired MPS teacher who taught at Lloyd Street School for 32 years, expect the scholarship fund to grow with gifts from former students and a legacy gift they have planned. Their initial gift will be made over a five-year period.
“Ron says this is the most important thing he has done in his life because it will go on forever,” Wild said. “I am truly inspired by the extraordinary vision, generosity and commitment these two teachers are making to students.”
Ron Zupko said he believed Marquette would help “students from less advantaged backgrounds receive the care, direction and inspiration they need to succeed and complete their education.” Kay Zupko said there “are many fine things going on in MPS, and many good people. We need to promote that and give students the opportunity to pursue a college degree.”
“The endowment will bring new hope to our classrooms,” said MPS Superintendent William Andrekopoulos. “We have many high-performing young students who will now have another reason to believe in themselves. The fact that a former Lloyd Street teacher keeps us in her heart helps sharpen our focus on successful outcomes for the city’s children.”
After receiving his Ph.D. at UW-Madison, Zupko taught at Marquette from 1966 until his retirement in 2002 and then, at the university’s urging, for four additional years as a professor emeritus. With an academic background in medieval history, he is also an international expert on metrology, the science of measurement. Zupko was widely known for what students called his “rat lecture,” an explanation of the spread of the Bubonic plague and how it disrupted the trading systems in medieval times. He received Marquette’s Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence in 1977.
Combining his research interests, Zupko is the author of seven books on the history of weights and measures in European countries and dozens of articles on medieval history and measurement, including the metric system, measurement standards and important medieval figures.
“We’re just ordinary people, practical and down to earth,” Kay Zupko said. “This is a focus we’ve always had, helping others benefit from education, as we have.”
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