R i va l ry
and
Philanthropy
RIVALRY DOESN’T GET IN THE WAY OF
PHILANTHROPY
The football is signed by both legendary Eastern coach Roy Kidd, ’55, ’61, a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, and Jimmy Feix, the winningest coach in Western Kentucky University history. The one-of-a-kind wedding gift also carried this caveat: This marriage interrupts for the “Battle of the Bluegrass.” Maribeth McBride Berman, ’92, says she and her husband, Louis Berman, a 1975 Western graduate, may have the only football signed by both men. The couple now lives in Louisville but met in Bowling Green when Maribeth, who had worked in human resources at Eastern, took a job at Western. “When I accepted that position I remember my family grilling me about it,” Maribeth recalls. “I told them it was a great opportunity professionally...I didn’t mention sports.” That’s because her mother, Marietta Chambers McBride, ’73, ’76, is a passionate EKU grad. So are brothers Jody McBride, ’88, and Dan McBride, ’89, along with sister-in-law Kelley Grimes McBride, ’96, ’04. Nephew Ryan McBride is a current student. But Louis Berman happily discusses the rivalry. “It was reasonably bitter for the first five or six years,” Berman remembers. “The first Christmas we visited Richmond, I wrapped her present in the newspaper that hadWKU’s national championship story on it and put it under their family tree.” Dan McBride, an associate athletic director at Eastern, says the family has worked “very, very hard” over the years to turn Berman into a Colonel. “He’s come along,” Dan says. “He’s been more willing to support Eastern than we have to support Western. In fact, when our basketball team was in the 2007 NCAA tournament, he wore an Eastern shirt in the stands.”
Rivalry aside, the couple has been generous to both schools.They established the McBride-Berman Family Scholarship at Eastern in 2011 to recognize their love for the institution and to provide financial support for deserving, well-rounded students who attended high school in Madison County. “EKU provided so many wonderful educational learning experiences and life-learning experiences for me,” says Maribeth, who received her bachelor’s degree in public relations. She also has fond memories of attending Model Laboratory School with her siblings. Louis Berman, a partner at Neace Lukens and Assured Partners, says he needed assistance to attend college. “It became real apparent to me a long time ago that the best thing you can do to help a kid is to help them get their college education and give them a chance in life,” he says. “That’s been a mission of mine for 15 years.” “When I wasn’t able to give financially I gave back by spending time mentoring and advising for my sorority,” Maribeth says of Alpha Delta Pi. “When I was able to give in another way – we did so. That’s what’s important – find what you are passionate about and where you think you can make a difference and then support it in whatever ways you can.”