ALUMNISUPPORT Jack Cullather (left) and Melvin Johnson
Gift supports student-athlete stipends By Nan Johnson
Photo Allen Jones (B.F.A.’82/A; M.F.A.’92/A), VCU University Marketing
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hen Jack Cullather (B.S.’66/B) followed the Rams on the road years ago, he noticed that many of the men’s basketball players wore sweat clothes while traveling to and from the away games. He later learned that they didn’t have the money to outfit themselves in coats and ties. Knowing that the players’ hectic schedules didn’t afford them the opportunity to earn extra money by working while in school, Cullather says he “always thought that the time they spent preparing themselves for performance on the court should have been compensated.” Years later, member institutions in the NCAA’s Division I agreed with Cullather’s reasoning and, in January 2015, passed legislation allowing student-athletes to receive stipends to help them with living expenses not covered by athletic scholarships. Not long after the NCAA announcement, the Virginia Commonwealth University Department of Intercollegiate Athletics launched the StudentAthlete Experience Initiative to raise the estimated $500,000 to cover the costs of the annual stipend awards. Beginning this fall, VCU scholarship student-athletes will receive stipends, paid from donor gifts, to help ease the financial burden of expenses for trips home, groceries, toiletries and other basic necessities that many students work part time to afford. The award amounts will be calculated by the Office of Financial Aid and will vary from student to student. When existing VCU Athletics donors were asked to increase their support by 15 percent to fund the initiative, Cullather didn’t hesitate and gave $50,000. “He immediately said yes,” says Ed McLaughlin, VCU’s director of athletics. “His gift is truly significant. For someone of Jack’s stature to be the first to come on board sets the tone that this is an important project. It suggests
to others in the community that our student-athlete focus is an important component of our core values. His philanthropy goes way beyond the gift.” Cullather, owner of Cullather Realty in Richmond, Virginia, is a longtime benefactor with multiple ties to the university. One of his two daughters, Maribeth Cullather Carr (B.S.’89/B), followed his footsteps into the School of Business. His son, John C. “Chris” Cullather, was a sophomore at VCU when he died in 1992 of brain cancer. He lost his wife, Jean, to the same cancer 11 years later. The family organized the annual Chris Cullather Basketball Classic in 1992 to raise funds for brain tumor research at VCU. Cullather supports not only the Massey Cancer Center but also the School of Business and the VCU Autism Center for Excellence. He’s also generously given his time to the university, having served on the boards of the MCV Foundation, the Business Alumni Society and the Real Estate Circle of Excellence in the business school’s Kornblau Real Estate Program. Basketball player Melvin Johnson, a senior guard from the Bronx, New York, says he and his fellow athletes were overwhelmed when they heard about Cullather’s gift. “The room erupted when they told us. We’ve been to college three and four years now, and it’s been a struggle sometimes as far as being able to have the things you need when you need them,” he says. “We’re thankful. It’s a heck of an opportunity.” Though Johnson is about to graduate with a B.S. in Criminal Justice, he looks forward to more time in the new basketball practice facility and is happy that his teammates will benefit from the new stipends after he’s gone. “As long as the guys coming up have the opportunity I didn’t have, I don’t mind,” he says. “It’s going to help VCU in the long run.”
– Nan Johnson is a contributing writer for the alumni magazine.
Fall 2015
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