VMI FOUNDATION, INC. Record $14 Million Bequest from Robert B. Rust Jr. ’34 Will Fund Scholarships During his lifetime, the late Robert B. Rust Jr. ’34 often related Nowhere in the memorandum or any communication with a story about his time as a cadet. According to his niece, Mrs. the Foundation, however, did Rust make mention of the amount Gretchen N. Arnold, the effects of the Great Depression were of the endowment he intended to support the scholarship. In such that, some time in his third class year, Rust learned that, late June, Rust’s attorneys informed the VMI Foundation that, “although his family had saved for his education, there was not under the terms of his will, the bequest to VMI was worth the enough in the account for all four years.” magnificent sum of more than $14 million. “Mr. Unlike many tales of young people, higher eduRust’s exceptional gift puts him among VMI’s cation and money in the 1930s, this one ended most generous donors,” said Brian S. Crockett, happily. Robert A. “Buzz” Marr Jr. ’18, then an chief executive officer of the VMI Foundation. assistant professor in the Department of Civil “It also is the largest bequest ever realized by the Engineering and a man well known for decades of VMI Foundation.” service on the faculty and for always being ready While some might be surprised that a civil to assist cadets and alumni, heard of Rust’s probengineer who worked most of his career for a lem. “Col. Marr took an interest in this problem railway would have the ability to make so large a and found a scholarship that could support my gift, it was no surprise to Mrs. Arnold. “He closeuncle,” said Mrs. Arnold. Marr had uncovered ly followed the stock market,” she recalled, “and the James H. Maxwell Scholarship. This scholardaily, he read Barron’s and the Washington Post. ship, according to Col. Diane B. Jacob, head of A great way to get a conversation going with VMI Archives, was established by Miss Mary E. him was to ask him about the market.” He did Rust Jr. ’34 Maxwell in 1921 in memory of her brother, James, so because, she explained, Rust began investing a cadet who had died in a swimming accident in in the 1930s. “His work with the railroad meant 1881, to provide aid to “two needy and deserving that he moved around quite a bit. Owning shares young men – one from West Virginia and one from Virginia.” of companies gave him a sense of being connected. ” Rust also With this financial support, Rust finished his education, taking was particular about the stocks he purchased. “He only bought a degree in civil engineering. He eventually joined the Southern into businesses that he knew, that he could understand,” said Railway – according to Mrs. Arnold, in no small measure because Mrs. Arnold. Thus, he never made faddish investments, such it employed a large number of VMI alumni, to include his brother, as many made during the 1990s’ “tech boom.” John A. Rust ’30 – and spent his professional career with it. Many future cadets will have reason to be thankful for Rust’s As mentioned above, the memories of how a professor’s as- acumen as an investor and his desire to do for them what sistance and the generosity of someone unknown to him had others did for him. “A gift of this size will have an immensely allowed him to stay at VMI remained with Rust for the rest of positive effect on whatever activity it supports on Post,” said his life. As Mrs. Arnold put it, “Obviously, Col. Marr’s action had Crockett. “In this case, the Rust Scholarship eventually will add a big impact on my uncle.” In 1997, he acted on that memory, approximately $630,000 in additional scholarship assistance for contacting the VMI Foundation through his attorney about cadets; that’s an increase of 15% in the scholarship assistance establishing a scholarship with a bequest. In April 1997, Rust currently available to cadets.” signed the memorandum of understanding – an agreement VMI’s director of Financial Aid, Col. Tim Golden ’71, said, between a donor, the VMI Foundation or VMI Keydet Club, “VMI has been blessed with many alumni and friends who and VMI concerning the purpose, funding and administration initiated endowments that provide ongoing financial support of any endowed fund – establishing the Robert B. Rust Jr. ’34 to our cadets. Their support, which assists 40% of the Corps, Scholarship. In that document, he mentioned the support has been crucial and remains crucial in a time of economic that he received as a cadet and required that the scholarship’s uncertainty and decreasing support from the commonwealth recipients “shall be of good character, have superior academic of Virginia. This gift from Mr. Rust continues this admirable potential and have need for financial assistance.” legacy of generosity and will have a significant impact in helpThe fact that her uncle established a scholarship makes sense to ing make VMI affordable for future cadets.” Mrs. Arnold. “He believed in education, and I think he liked the idea After remarking on “the interesting parallel between the time of providing young people with the same opportunity he enjoyed,” when my uncle received his scholarship, the Great Depression she said. That he did so through a bequest also seems to match and now, in the midst of a serious economic downturn,” Mrs. her uncle’s personality. “He was not a man to want attention. As Arnold concluded her thoughts on her uncle’s gift by saying, his history in the Bomb states, he had a ‘retiring nature’ and ‘in a “All in all, it is a simple but wonderful thing: the repaying of a measure, he has kept the light of his abilities under a bushel.’” kindness across the years.” 2009-Issue 4
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