Ford’s better idea: Establish scholarship with first gift to new Foundation

The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Foundation, Inc., received its first gift, toward a scholarship endowment, following its inaugural meeting last Tuesday, April 19. Diane (Dockry) Ford, vice president-controller of Integrys Energy Group, and a 1975 Managerial Systems graduate of UW-Green Bay, wrote out the first check to the newly formed Foundation.

“I have been thinking about setting up a scholarship at UWGB for a while now,” said Ford, whose husband Patrick and daughter Christy are also UW-Green Bay graduates. “I certainly feel that what I learned at UWGB has served me very well in my life and career and helped me to achieve the success I have today.” Ford says she empathizes with students who are working and still struggling to pay their way. “I was the oldest of eight kids and my parents did not go to college, so I paid my own way and worked three jobs to do it. That was back when we were talking hundreds of dollars a year, not thousands. It has gotten a lot harder to do what I did.”

It’s a nice story, featured on the UW-Green Bay homepage; read more.