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 The
estate of alumnus William N. Beck has conveyed a $100,000 bequest to the
Bulldog Pride Scholarship Fund, whose annual competitive awards are
presented under the aegis of the Fresno State Alumni Association.
The Beck bequest is the biggest to an alumni association scholarship
endowment at any of the California State University’s 23 campuses, said
Peter Robertson, director of annual giving at California State
University, Fresno.
Robertson, who holds three degrees from Fresno State, established the
Bulldog Pride Scholarship Fund in 2005. With Mr. Beck’s advice and
donations, the fund’s endowment had accumulated nearly $50,000 prior to
the bequest.
The bequest was announced Saturday, Jan. 26, to the association’s Board
of Directors.
"We are privileged to have had the opportunity to meet such a generous
man,” said Valerie Vuicich, president of the Alumni Association Board of
Directors. “Mr. Beck loved this university and his dedication is a true
example of Bulldog Pride. His gift will positively affect the lives of
students for many generations to come."
Mr. Beck, who was born in 1929, graduated from Fresno State in 1952 with
a degree in business. He went on to great success in wine marketing. He
was one of the people who helped the California wine industry’s
expansion by acquainting people with wine in a variety of ways during
the 1960s and ’70s.
He died July 2, 2007, in the Bay Area community of Inverness.
In the last year and a half of his life, Mr. Beck took a special
interest in the Bulldog Pride Scholarship Fund, Robertson said, after
visiting the campus for the fall 2006 Top Dog Alumni Awards Gala at the
Save Mart Center. He also attended the announcement of civil engineering
major Jared Lindo as the first Bulldog Pride Scholarship Fund awardee.
Robertson credits Mr. Beck with good advice that helped build the
Bulldog Pride Scholarship Fund rapidly to the point it was able to award
three scholarships in 2007: a second to Lindo and grants to Sara
Martinez (Social Work) and Adrian Quintero (Criminology and Latin
American Studies).
“Rarely do you find people who are so committed to students and really
understand what we mean when we say, ‘Fresno State is powering the New
California,’” Robertson said. “Mr. Beck got it and he wanted to make as
big a difference as he could in our students’ lives by generously
sharing some of what his Fresno State education helped him earn.”
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