A Life Dedicated to Service
Fall 2022 - When William "Bill" Dube joined the staff of Baylor University's financial aid office, the scope of the financial aid program was modest by today's standards. It was the mid 1970s, and Baylor's enrollment was in the neighborhood of 8,000 students instead of 20,000.
Granted, the cost of attending Baylor was also considerably less than it is today. However, the impact of receiving a scholarship - enabling students to achieve their dreams of earning a Baylor degree - was just as powerful then as it is now.
"I've seen how important scholarships and other forms of financial aid can be to the lives of Baylor students from one generation to the next," said Bill, who served as dean for admissions, academic scholarships, and financial aid before becoming the founding director of the endowed scholarship program at Baylor in 1997. "What I've most enjoyed seeing during my 44 years at Baylor - in helping alumni and friends create endowed scholarships - has been the establishment of support that will be long lasting and life changing."
A PASSION FOR STUDENTS
During his lengthy career at Baylor, Bill gained a particularly broad perspective on the various groups of people who make up the Baylor Family and on the particular needs and abilities they have.
It all started during his days as a Baylor student himself. After earning a bachelor of arts in 1968, he served for two years in the United States Marine Corps and then returned to Baylor and earned an MBA in 1972. By the time he retired, in 2018, he had also served as director of the retired professors and administrators' program, been an advisor for the Alpha Tau Omega (ATO) fraternity and directed and mentored the Carr P. Collins Scholarship program.
Over the years, he had contributed to several endowed scholarship funds, including one named in his honor by ATO. When Baylor made increasing the number of endowed scholarships a priority with the launch of The President's Scholarship Initiative in 2010, Bill decided the time was right to create the William J. Dube, III Endowed Scholarship Fund at his alma mater.
More recently, in making Baylor a beneficiary of his retirement account, he has made a planned gift that, when it matures, will be added to the endowed scholarship fund.
"Baylor has played an enormous role in my life, and I wanted to make a gift that would reflect that," Bill said. "This scholarship fund is for merit and need-based financial aid, not restricted to a particular major or field of study."
UNENDING GROWTH
Bill noted that the special aspect of creating an endowed scholarship - whether through current giving, planned giving, or a combination of the two - is that it establishes a source of support for students that will never go away.
"Because only a portion of the fund's earnings is used for scholarships each year, the fund continues to grow in size and impact over time," he said.
"There will be students receiving this scholarship until the Lord returns."
There are, of course, a number of areas in the University's operations that benefit from philanthropic support, such as facilities and endowed professorships. All gifts are important, Bill said, but making gifts designated for scholarships has the most meaning for him.
"I feel blessed to have had the means to make gifts in response to my growing desire to give back and to do it in a way that reflects my passion for students being able to attend Baylor," he said. "My hope is that those students will, in turn, consider doing something similar in the future if they are in a position to do so - either by starting a scholarship or contributing to one - to help students like them and continue expanding the Baylor Family."