Core values inspire endowment for Hoover Family Fund in business

Leah and Wayne Hoover

Community service and education are core values for Wayne W. Hoover (BA Accounting and Marketing ’65) and Leah S. Hoover (BA Arts and Letters ’65). The couple has combined both in a charitable bequest that will endow student scholarships and support faculty excellence in the Broad School.

The endowment, Wayne says, “is a lasting way to show the deep affection and dedication to Michigan State University that every member of our family feels.” Like their parents, sons Timothy (BA Social Science/Honors College ’94) and Matthew (BA Accounting ’00) are also graduates of Michigan State University.

“With this gift, Leah and I are making an investment in the intellectual capital of the Broad School at MSU, its students and its faculty,” Wayne says.

The fund will provide scholarship support to “capable and worthy students” from financially disadvantaged backgrounds. The scholarship award/s – a minimum of one each year – will be available to undergraduate and graduate students of the Broad School. In addition, expenditures from the endowment may be used to support hiring, training and retaining faculty for the Broad School.

“Admission to the Broad School program is highly competitive and only the best students are offered admission, but we must be certain that there is financial aid available to create opportunities for those students who have the intellect to succeed in the Broad School, but not the financial means. Gifts such as this give us more flexibility to support those students,” says Robert Duncan, the Eli and Edythe L. Broad Dean. “Similarly, we compete constantly to attract and retain a business faculty focused on leading-edge research and knowledge transfer in the classroom and in the corporate world.

“We are grateful for the benefits such gifts bring to the quality of education and research at the Broad School.”