Fall 2023
By Tony Fessler, NU Class of 1970
Greetings from your Naval ROTC Scholarship Fund board. As the end of 2023 nears, the board has continued to strengthen its support for the Northwestern NROTC Unit and its midshipmen. Among its most recent undertakings was a significant upgrade of the Scholarship Fund website spearheaded by months of effort by board member Dan Kasperski-‘65. The greatly improved website provides expanded functionality and is an attractive update to its predecessor. Check it out at www.nu-nrotc.org and respond as best you can to our critical need for current alumni locator information. We depend on you to keep the Scholarship Fund alive.
As the Northwestern NROTC midshipmen, staff and alumni have come to understand over the years, the Scholarship Fund has made an extraordinary contribution to the lives of many Northwestern midshipmen from both NU and Loyola. Many of the Unit alumni have gone on to make significant contributions to our nation either through their active military service or in a civilian capacity after leaving the service. Of the NROTC Units positioned at many of the nation’s most prestigious institutions, no other scholarship fund offers so substantial and consistent a level of financial support to its midshipmen. The establishment and highly successful growth of our Fund is in large part attributed to the foresight, ingenuity, dedication and hard work of a Northwestern NROTC graduate of the class of ’45, the late Bob Seery and his spouse, Maryann. But for the drive of Bob and Maryann, the Scholarship Fund would never have come into existence or grown to the point of making a significant difference in the lives of so many midshipmen.
Bob Seery, along with a cohort of other WWII NU NROTC graduates, developed a close and enduring bond. In particular, they shared an appreciation for their NU NROTC experience and the contribution it made to their professional and personal lives. These officers viewed the NU NROTC Unit with great pride and an affection that grew during their active service and follow-on years.
In 1985, Bob and Maryann introduced themselves to Captain Vic Gulliver who was then the CO/PNS of the NROTC Unit. Bob was in Evanston to meet with a couple of the class of 1945 to discuss their upcoming reunion. The following year, the Seery's returned to Vic’s office to explore the need for and the possibility of creating a fund for the purpose of providing financial support to NU midshipmen. The initial concept was to offer assistance to non-scholarship (College Program) midshipmen. In the first iteration, the Fund was conceived to be a general support fund, but soon was named the Naval ROTC Scholarship Fund.
Bob Seery and a trio of NU NROTC alumni, including Norm Coleman-’44, Dick Nachtscheim-’45 and Donald Streit-’45, formed an initial board of directors. They began to operationalize Bob’s vision of building a scholarship fund to offer direct and exclusive support to NU NROTC midshipmen to help cope with the rising costs of NU’s premier educational experience. Bob and Maryann registered the Fund as a not-for-profit corporation in Florida and established the Fund’s federal tax-exempt 501(c)(3) status with the IRS.
The first official board meeting was planned for 1987, and Vic Gulliver was invited to join the board of directors upon his retirement from the Navy that year. Regrettably, Bob Seery passed away before that first board meeting. In his stead, Maryann Seery came to the meeting to provide whatever background and development information she had. A variety of issues were discussed at that first meeting, including the relationship that the Fund should have with the university. The board members were adamant that the Fund should remain financially independent of Northwestern. There was strong agreement that a Unit scholarship fund must remain an entity administered by and responsible to a board of directors of NROTC alumni. That stipulation has remained a cornerstone of the growth and success of the Fund since its inception. At that first meeting of the board, Vic was elected as board president and Maryann was elected as Secretary/Treasurer although her previous involvement in the Fund had been limited before Bob’s passing.
In no small part, the organizing principles and continuity of the Fund continue to be championed by Maryann and Vic, who remain to this day as active members and past officers of the Scholarship Fund board. In his final tour in a long and distinguished Navy career, Vic served as the NROTC Unit’s longest serving commanding officer. In retirement, Vic worked in direct support of Maryann’s committed effort to establish an NROTC alumni roster that is fundamental to our charity. Bob and Maryann provided a sizeable opening endowment for the Fund. Early donations in memory of Bob were most helpful in building an investment corpus. In the early years of the Fund, Maryann and Vic were single-handedly creating and posting solicitation letters to alumni to get the Fund rolling. Maryann served as treasurer of the Fund for nearly two decades. Vic served as president for 25 years. Over the years, many alumni have voluntarily served for a time on the board of directors, with each adding their perspective and initiative to what the Fund has accomplished. A special shout-out to long-time treasurer Joel Weber-’73 and former president Katie Licup-’97.
By 1989, the Fund’s corpus had grown to the point that the Board decided it could award its first scholarship grant. An award of $500 was made in that year to a lone midshipman. In the years that followed, and as the corpus began to grow through continuing donations and prudent investments, the board granted scholarships in larger amounts and to multiple midshipmen each year. By the Spring of 2023, the total value of all scholarships awarded by the Fund since its inception exceeded a million dollars. No other NROTC Unit in the nation enjoys this level of alumni support for its midshipmen.
Whether from Northwestern or Loyola, alumni of the NU NROTC Unit can be justifiably proud of the extraordinary accomplishments of many of the Unit’s graduates. Our article in the last Crow’s Nest featured our own Admiral Lisa Franchetti-’85 who has been nominated by the President to serve as the next Chief of Naval Operations. Seeing the caliber and achievements of so many NU NROTC graduates should bring into focus the continuing need to support the midshipmen of the Unit through donations to the Scholarship Fund.
There are two key actions that all Unit alumni should consider: One is to periodically check the continually changing Lost Alumni list here in the Crow’s Nest and on our website to help locate alumni whose addresses we’ve lost. If you know someone’s location, pass it on to Bob Shaw at bshaw1057@gmail.com or to Vic Gulliver at vicgulliver@comcast.net. Secondly, plan to make a periodic donation to the Scholarship Fund. We don’t solicit donations in the Crow’s Nest, but donations can be made on our website or sent to Katie Licup at 309 E. Scranton Ave., Lake Bluff, IL 60044-2533. As a reminder, 100% of all donations are guaranteed to be used for scholarship awards, and all donations are tax-deductible. Where else can you get more bang for the buck?
Bob Seery deeply believed in the reciprocal obligation of giving something back in return for the benefits so many of us have received from our association with the NROTC program. As we close out 2023, we can look with pride at the support that the alumni have given to our Unit midshipmen from both Northwestern and Loyola. We are reminded that our individual contributions to the Scholarship Fund are an extension of what Bob and Maryann Seery initiated, and it is hoped that alumni support will continue building what they started.