Owners fund Great People Scholarship in Seligs’ honor
Three Major League Baseball owners have joined to create a Great People Scholarship at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in honor of Commissioner Allan H. “Bud” Selig and his wife, Suzanne.
Mark Attanasio, chair and principal owner of the Milwaukee Brewers; Lew Wolff, owner and managing partner of the Oakland A’s; and Tom Werner, co-owner and chair of the Boston Red Sox, have endowed the Suzanne and Allan “Bud” Selig Great People Scholarship.
Bud Selig earned his bachelor’s degrees in history and political science from UW–Madison in 1956. Wolff, who earned his bachelor’s degree in business at UW–Madison in 1957, was a fraternity brother of Selig in Pi Lambda Phi.
“In the more than five years of my involvement with the Brewers, I have come to appreciate how important the University of Wisconsin–Madison is to our community,” Attanasio says. “For the three of us as Major League Baseball owners to be able to support one of the most important institutions in Bud’s life is an honor, recognizing his passion for Wisconsin and education, and how the UW has helped forge the lives of so many of today’s leaders.”
Wolff said of the commissioner, who endowed a professorial chair in the Department of History: “Bud Selig is part of the fabric that makes the University of Wisconsin a great institution.”
Wolff called his years on campus “perhaps the best time of my life” and says his UW–Madison education “opened lots of worlds for me.”
Werner’s daughter, Amanda, earned her bachelor’s degree at UW–Madison this year. “Commissioner Selig is justifiably proud of his legacy in baseball, but he always talks about his education at Wisconsin as the starting point,” Werner says. “When my daughter attended there, graduating as a member of the class of 2010, I saw how the university is such an important part of one’s life and how the experiences there help form one’s character.
“This gift both honors the essential role the university played in Bud Selig’s life and will give many other students the opportunity of a UW–Madison education,” Werner says.
Great People Scholarships are UW–Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin’s top fundraising priority on campus. The scholarships are part of support packages that include student and family contributions, loans and work-study jobs. The owners’ combined endowment gift was matched by the UW Foundation.
“It’s hard to overstate the importance of college affordability to Wisconsin and to its competitive future,” Martin says. “Gifts like these go far in helping the best and brightest students build productive, successful lives. They are an investment in our future and a recognition of the life-changing importance of a university degree.”
The first recipient of the Suzanne and Allan “Bud” Selig Great People Scholarship is Maha Baalbaki of Milwaukee. She is a junior majoring in sociology, and she is a first-generation college student.
“I am pleased to have the opportunity to help others through this tremendous scholarship,” Wolff says.
Great People Scholarships not only open doors for talented young students at UW–Madison. In combination with tuition resources, they enable the university the flexibility to meet opportunities and face fiscal challenges as they present themselves.