Fall 2024
Naval R.O.T.C. Scholarship Fund Inc.
By Tony Fessler, NU Class of 1970
As we head to the final months of 2024, greetings from the NU NROTC Scholarship Fund Board. As the Unit closed out the 2023-24 academic year, with the generosity of our alumni and friends, the Fund was pleased to have awarded 11 outstanding midshipmen from Northwestern and Loyal Universities with scholarships totaling $75,000. These most recent awards facilitate the Unit’s continued outreach to attract the most highly qualified incoming students as well retain those already enrolled in the program. The Unit joins the Scholarship Board in extending our appreciation to our supporting alumni and unit friends for their continued support. The Fund’s support underscores our commitment to attracting and retaining our finest young people in the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps.
It is however with sincere regret that the Board acknowledges the recent loss of one of its longest serving and most dedicated trustees, Captain Victor S. Gulliver, USN (Ret). “Vic” as he was affectionately known to his fellow Scholarship Fund trustees, was a native of southern California and from an early age grew up with a love of aviation. After earning his commission from the USC NROTC in 1957, Vic proceeded to flight training at NAS Pensacola. Thereafter, Vic’s first operational assignment was with Patrol Squadron Two (VP-2) at NAS Whidbey Island flying the P2V-7. For the first half of his 30 years of service, Vic’s assignments were in anti-submarine warfare operations units flying the venerated P3A and P3C aircraft. Following a command tour, he was assigned to the OPNAV staff working directly for ADM James Holloway III, CNO, VADM Joe Moorer and then VADM William Crowe (later Chairman of the JCS). Many recall that this was an era of rapid change and buildup for our Naval and Marine forces worldwide.
Vic’s Pentagon tour was followed by an assignment as Executive Assistant to VADM Ronald Hays at CINCUSNAVEUR London. His last five years of active service placed Vic as commanding officer and Professor of Naval Science at Northwestern’s NROTC Unit. The length of Vic’s tenure in this latter capacity is thought to be a record in the NU NROTC Unit.
As reported in an earlier Scholarship Fund Crow’s Nest article, as Vic was nearing retirement in 1987, he collaborated with several other Northwestern NROTC graduates to create a scholarship fund to aid midshipmen challenged by steadily rising costs of higher education. As this founding cadre formed the Naval ROTC Scholarship Fund, Vic was elected its first board president – a capacity in which he served for the next 25 years. Under the enlightened leadership and drive of Vic and the Fund’s other founders, alumni and friends contributions produced a respectable foundational corpus. By 1989 the Fund corpus had grown sufficiently to allow for an initial scholarship award to a midshipman of $500. This award was only the beginning of the Scholarship Fund’s impactful support for Unit midshipmen. With alumni and friends’ continued contributions, total annual awards in recent years have reached or exceeded $75,000. Since 1989, total scholarship grants to midshipmen have risen to well beyond $1,000,000. Vic and the Fund’s other founders were responsible for making this extraordinary support a reality. No other NROTC Unit enjoys comparable alumni and friends support.
While on active duty and thereafter as the NROTC Scholarship Board leader and trustee as well as through his continued associations with his Navy aviation community, Vic’s service made a profound difference to many in the Naval Service. On behalf the Northwestern NROTC Unit, its staff and midshipmen, as well as the Scholarship Fund Board, we extend our deepest condolences to his family. In doing so, we all join in the celebration of this extraordinary officer’s life of selfless service to his country, his service comrades, friends and family. Vic will be missed.
In response to the Board’s fall 2024 solicitation letter, NU NROTC Unit alumni and friends are invited to join those who have already made contributions to the memory of this extraordinary officer. To do so, please either use the form enclosed in the Fall 2024 solicitation letter or make your gift using the website (www.nu-nrotc.org). Please note that the Scholarship Fund operates in direct support of the Unit’s high priority recruitment and retention objectives which require assisting our midshipmen in offsetting the greatly increased costs of higher education. Our significant scholarship awards are a principal means of attracting and retaining our nation’s best in the Naval service of our country.