A Legacy of Love: the John A. and Melissa T. Howland Scholarship Fund
“I remember the day I met Missy. At five feet tall, she was fairly short. One of my best friends was also quite short - only about 5’3” - which made it difficult for him to get dates. We were both in the John Hay Library studying one night when my friend spotted my wife-to-be at another table. ‘Gee,’ he said, ‘I’ve got to meet her; she’d be great for me.’ Later, the two of us went into the smoking room. Then she came in and asked if either of us had a light. While my friend fumbled away, I whipped out my Zippo lighter and aced him out. I took her for coffee at the Brown Jug on Thayer Street when the library closed and that was the beginning of our story.
“Brown was much smaller then, with only about 500 students in each class. And the seemingly insurmountable - at least to us - tuition was $500 per year. My father guaranteed me one semester at Brown; after that I was on my own. Fortunately, the GI Bill paid my way. My wife didn’t have it easy, either: she had a small scholarship and worked her last two years as a housekeeper and babysitter on the East Side to help pay her way.
“That is part of what led my wife and me to say that, when we retired, if we had any money left over, we will give some of it to Brown. It was difficult enough for us as undergrads; it must be especially daunting at today's cost. I can’t imagine facing something like that.
“Years back, we set up an insurance policy which Brown owns and we pay for, with Brown receiving the proceeds upon the death of both of us. We also changed our will so that after taking care of a few bequests, the residual estate will go to Brown to endow a scholarship fund. It might not be as much as the wealthier folks are able to leave, but it should help out one or two students a year. That’s our hope anyway. My wife and I decided that this would be our legacy: the scholarship will be in both our names. She died earlier this year, so this means a lot to me right now.
“I encourage my friends and classmates to do something similar. It comes down to loyalty. My own experience—and I think this is true of almost every Brown friend I had—is that our Brown education served us well professionally. It certainly proved valuable to me. From starting out as a business trainee at General Electric, I ended up being Director of Advertising for what was then the world’s largest corporation: AT&T - i.e. the Bell system. I think Brown - and we - did something right.”
