Longest-running UW-Green Bay donors give record-tying $1 million for scholarships
The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay’s longest-running donors are enhancing a decades-long legacy of generosity with a $1 million scholarship gift for students who intend to pursue a career in medicine or related medical fields.
Dr. Herbert and Crystal Sandmire’s gift ties a record for the University’s largest-ever single scholarship donation. In 2008, the family of Capt. Craig A. Mueller gave $1 million for scholarships, in accordance with the late alumnus’ wishes.
Established in 1987, the Herbert F. and Crystal J. Sandmire Scholarship is awarded to continuing UW-Green Bay students who plan to enter the medical field. The pair’s latest gift will provide perhaps dozens of additional scholarships annually, helping more pre-med and other students prepare to meet a critical regional need, said UW-Green Bay Chancellor Gary L. Miller.
“This generous gift will provide a tremendous boost for our Human Biology program and related areas, which are helping to prepare the medical professionals of tomorrow,” Miller said. “Our regional economy depends on training and equipping more doctors and other professionals to provide the best care possible for the people of Northeastern Wisconsin.”
The Sandmires’ gift comes at an important juncture for the future of healthcare in the region, Miller added. UW-Green Bay is a partner institution for a new Medical College of Wisconsin satellite campus that will be housed at St. Norbert College in De Pere.
“Many of our students wish to remain in the area, and the new MCW campus will allow them to do that,” Miller said. “Herb and Crystal’s generosity will help these students pursue their dreams, which truly benefits us all.”
UW-Green Bay records identify the Sandmires as having the longest uninterrupted string of annual giving — 46 years — among the thousands of private individuals who have supported the University and its students throughout the years. An award-winning doctor of obstetrics and gynecology, Dr. Sandmire was a UW-Green Bay community lecturer in Human Biology from 1968 to 1989. Crystal Sandmire, a University alumna who earned her Communication and the Arts degree in 1980, was a charter member and officer of the UW-Green Bay Founders Association. The Sandmires received UW-Green Bay’s highest community honor, the Chancellor’s Award, in 2006.
UW-Green Bay has made a positive contribution to healthcare in the area, Herb Sandmire said.
“Based on my affiliation with UW-Green Bay, and as an instructor in the college of human biology,” he said, “I have always been impressed with the quality of the institution’s faculty and the many students who have gone through the laboratory instruction and pursued careers in the health sciences or medicine.”
