| Meserves keep giving back to their ‘family’ |
 |
 |
 |
| Written by JACK CARLE Sentinel Sports Editor | ||
| Thursday, 21 February 2013 10:23 | ||
And the Meserves continue to give financial help to that extended family. Before the start of Wednesday's BGSU-Akron women's basketball game in the Stroh Center, they were recognized for a gift that is valued at more than $650,000 to the athletics department. The Meserves are fixtures at Falcon athletic events. Coupled with a planned deferred gift to endow a biological sciences professorship, the overall total impact of the donation will be nearly $1 million. The gift is one of the largest in BGSU's history from a faculty member. ''You give people what you can to make them better along the way,'' Dr. Lee Meserve said. ''The job that our students do in general and our student-athletes in particular just astounds me. I am just blown away all the time by the academic performance that they do. ''It's a family, we couldn't describe it as anything else,'' he added. ''Since each of us is an only child, we appreciate the sense of family that we have received. We are more than honored to be able to give back to our family." Dr. Meserve is in his 40th year at BGSU, and his 16th as the university's faculty athletics representative. Previously, the couple endowed the Meserve Scholarship, given to BGSU's Senior Male and Senior Female Student-Athletes of the Year. Part of the Meserves' most recent donation will help fully endow the Janna Blais Scholarship which is already in place in the athletics department. The couple is also starting a new scholarship, the Meserve Women's Athletics Scholarship. The couple is giving $15,000 a year for five years to endow that scholarship. ''The scholarship that we have endowed, hopefully that will help some of them out a little bit along the way,'' Dr. Meserve said. ''It's not going to pay their whole ride. ''I always say those small scholarships beat a sharp stick in the eye." In addition, the Meserves continue to serve as part of the inaugural group of Champions Circle donors. Part of the donation will fund 20 years of the Champions Circle for gymnastics. The latest donation will also provide the resources to install lights at Meserve Softball Field. Construction is scheduled to begin on the lights this spring. "We often hear how BGSU impacts the lives of students," said Greg Christopher, Bowling Green's athletics director. "Marge and Lee personify BGSU, and their relationship with our students has impacted thousands. ''Their gift is an amazing gesture and will insure that future generations of student-athletes benefit from the BGSU experience." On the academic side, the biological sciences professorship will recognize Dr. Meserve's dedication to teaching. Former students of the long-time educator can honor him through their gifts to the professorship. He began his teaching career at BGSU in 1973. During his time in Bowling Green, he has served as an assistant professor, associate professor, professor and distinguished teaching professor of biological sciences. ''It's a great place to be a faculty member for this length of time,'' Dr. Meserve said. ''The way I see it, if you don't so some of those other things besides your academic area in a place like Bowling Green you are missing out on a lot of neat stuff. I just love all the parts of it.'' |
Front Page Stories
| BG students face extra fee 06/19/2013 | MARIE THOMAS BAIRD, Sentinel Education Editor  The Bowling Green school district will add pay to participate this fall to all o [ ... ] |
Horizon enters new stage 06/19/2013 | DAVID DUPONT, Sentinel Arts & Entertainment Editor  Horizon youth theater instructor Duffee Maddox (left) and students (from left) Yelia X [ ... ] | Other Front Page Articles | ||
Comments
RSS feed for comments to this post.