Featured Excerpt From Chapter 11, "It’s Not Just About the Money"
Others have designated that their gift be used to support a favorite Rotary Foundation program in the name of a loved one. Sir Angus Mitchell, the first Australian to become president of Rotary (1948-49), helped launch this tradition in 1949, when he established a scholarship for an Australian student in honor of his wife, to be known as the Teenie Robertson Mitchell Memorial Fellowship. Thus began a long tradition that continues to this day.
Bruno Ghigi wanted to honor his father, who had been a member of the Rotary Club of Rimini, Italy. Throughout his childhood, Bruno listened to his father regale the family with wonderful stories of Rotary's work. After leaving school, Bruno joined his father in the family business and he later branched out to form a software company that became one of the most successful in Italy. Bruno joined Rotary and became club president and a Rotary Foundation Major Donor. In 1988, on the 20th anniversary of his father's death, Ghigi donated $350,000 to The Rotary Foundation to establish an endowed fund to benefit refugees, the sick, and street children in Africa and Brazil.
Some recipients of the Foundation's benevolence have later felt inspired to pay back so others could enjoy that same experience. For example, Sadako Ogata, one of the first Rotary Foundation scholars, later donated $10,000 to the Foundation in appreciation for the scholarship it had bestowed on her as a university student. "Rotary set me on a course that I am still continuing. If I had not gone to the United States as an Ambassadorial Scholar," she said, "I don't think I would have pursued the study of international relations."
Richard Illgen, an Ambassadorial Scholar from Mainz, Germany, studied business and economics at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, USA. After graduating, he joined Kraft Foods, where he enjoyed a very successful career. Wanting to provide a similar scholarship opportunity for others, Illgen and his wife, Irene, made a gift — matched by Kraft Foods — that provided $23,000 for a scholar from his home district in Germany to study at Northwestern.