UWM Business School Receives $1.5 Million Fitzsimonds Gift
MILWAUKEE- University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Business Administration graduate and prominent business leader Roger L. Fitzsimonds has made a $1.5 million gift to the UWM Foundation to establish the Roger L. Fitzsimonds Scholarly Achievement Fund within the School of Business Administration.
The gift will focus on stimulating and supporting scholarly excellence within the School of Business Administration. Fitzsimonds, who earned a UWM bachelor's degree in finance in 1960 and an MBA in 1971, is the retired chairman and CEO of Firstar Corporation (now U.S. Bank).
"The Roger L. Fitzsimonds Scholarly Achievement Fund was established to assist in the school's quest for superior results," says Fitzsimonds.
The core component of the fund is the Roger L. Fitzsimonds Scholar Program, which will provide funding to attract, recognize, and retain outstanding faculty with dual excellence in research and teaching at the business school. It also will support the research of high-caliber business doctoral students with Roger L. Fitzsimonds Doctoral Scholarships. Faculty and doctoral students in all academic disciplines in the School of Business Administration are eligible to participate.
"A university's greatest asset is its people, particularly the faculty who shape and define the curriculum and research focus of the institution," said School of Business Administration Dean V. Kanti Prasad. "The Roger L. Fitzsimonds Scholarly Achievement Fund greatly enhances our ability to attract top scholars to our ranks and to retain our best faculty. We are tremendously grateful to Roger for his generous gift, and for helping the UWM business school to continue achieving academic excellence well into the future."
Additionally, the fund will support the Roger L. Fitzsimonds Distinguished Lecture on Management Excellence. The annual lecture will provide a forum featuring internationally acclaimed scholars and business leaders presenting cutting-edge theories and practices in management excellence.
The school's Executive MBA classroom will be named the Roger L. Fitzsimonds Lecture Hall for Management Excellence in honor of Fitzsimonds' decades-long record of executive excellence and his involvement with the school.
A native of Milwaukee, Fitzsimonds was a member of the first four-year class to graduate from UWM when he earned his bachelor's degree in 1960. "As a leading example of a UWM graduate who has reached the highest executive levels, Fitzsimonds has been a champion of the university and urban higher education, and a firm believer in the special role that the UWM business school plays as a leading institution of management education in Wisconsin's economic hub," says Prasad.
"Roger has had a really unwavering loyalty to the School of Business Administration and UWM," Prasad continues. "He brings the UWM message to the community and adds credibility to all our efforts. As a member and president of the Business Advisory Council, he has played a central role in the business school's growth and development, and in helping us achieve national visibility. He is truly one of a kind, and we're honored to count him among our alumni."
UWM acknowledged Fitzsimonds' accomplishments in the community and his commitment to his alma mater by awarding him the UWM Alumni Association's Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1983, and an honorary Doctorate in Commercial Science in 1989.
