Fall/Winter 2026
Naval R.O.T.C. Scholarship Fund Inc.
by Tony Fessler, Class of ’70
In the final months of 2025, the Scholarship Board is pleased to announce the addition of three new directors. After many years of dedicated service as directors for the Scholarship Fund , anticipated retirements were cause for a call to our alumni this spring and summer to consider joining the board. Three accomplished alumni each with impressive professional credentials and record of Naval service have accepted the call. Each has been enthusiastically welcomed as directors. These additions to our board have uniformly expressed a commitment to the Scholarship Fund’s core mission of providing the greatest possible financial support to midshipmen with the Northwestern University based Chicago NROTC Consortium. Our new directors are committed to the Naval NROTC Scholarship Fund support of unit recruitment and retention of the most highly qualified student candidates. They expressed support for the second-to-none higher education and military training experience leading to U.S. Navy and Marine Corps commissions offered by the Consortium.
The first of the three new directors is Jim Welch. Jim earned his Northwestern degree in electrical engineering and Unit commission to the U.S. Navy in 1985. He served eight years as a Naval Aviator in VRC-40 and VR-24 participating in Operation Desert Storm. After returning to civilian life, Jim provided engineering expertise in positions with Newell/Rubbermaid, Unilever, Diageo, and Coca Cola. For the past twelve years, he has provided site support for the CBRE corporation and major customers including Mondelez, Microsoft and Honeywell. Jim resides with his spouse in Naperville, Illinois, and is the proud father of two sons currently in college.
A second alumnus answering the call is Brad Owen, a Unit graduate and commissioned in the class of 1992. Brad served as a Naval Flight Officer for ten years flying EA-6B Prowlers with VAQ-131 as part of Airwing 2 (CVW-2) aboard USS Constellation CV-64. He remains a member of the Tailhook Association as well as the Association of Naval Aviation. After leaving the Navy, Brad received an MBA from NYU’s Stern School of Business and worked in various capacities in the insurance industry, aviation parts manufacturing and consulting. The majority of his professional work has focused on operations, management of teams ranging from 5 to 500, and manufacturing, financial and business process improvement. Brad has served as a chief of staff to Fortune 200 CEOs and is an active director for his church board.
Our third new director is LCDR Elisha D. Bolton, NC, USN. Elisha earned her BS degree in Nursing from Loyola University and was commissioned in May 2012. After an initial tour at the Naval Medical Center, Portsmouth, she was assigned in 2015 to the Multi-Service War and Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at U.S. Naval Hospital Guam. Upon receiving multiple certifications during this tour, she was hand-selected as instructor and preceptor for Hospital Corpsmen Trauma Training - proof of concept of emergent and non-emergent training - at John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County ensuring a sustainment of a medically ready force.
In years following, Elisha has been assigned increasing leadership responsibilities in numerous deployed and operational capacities at a variety duty stations in the U.S. and overseas. Most recently, she has assumed the role as the Critical Nurse Specialist of the Critical Care Department and Chief Nursing Informatics Officer at Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Command Portsmouth. She completed her MSN in Informatics from Liberty University and graduated from the University of San Diego in May 2024 upon her selection for Duty Under Instruction as a Critical Care Clinical Nurse Specialist. Elisha is married to LCDR David Bolton, SC, USN. The Navy couple are the proud parents of a two-year old daughter and anticipate the birth of second daughter in the immediate future.
The Scholarship Board extends its very warmest welcome to these three Unit alums. We have every expectation that based on their impressive backgrounds, they bring energy, dedication and fresh ideas in support of our mission. As these new directors join the Scholarship Board, all our alumni are encouraged to show continued financial support through tax deductible donations to the Fund. Recent achievements in both Unit quality and quantity are no accident. The Scholarship Board believes there is no better way to acknowledge what has been achieved than maintaining and building the financial strength of our Fund. .
Alumni and friends of the Unit are asked to provide updates to contact information by contacting Scholarship Fund Director John Ferrara at jferrara9@yahoo.com. Help us find and communicate with alumni with whom contact has been lost. The Scholarship Fund also welcomes background information which might be of interest to fellow shipmates and friends. Contact is encouraged via LinkedIn by joining the Northwestern University and Loyola University Navy ROTC alumni group at https://www.linkedin.com/groups/14606758 . Finally, our website www.nu-nrotc.org provides yet another means of remaining in contact with the Scholarship Fund.