REMEMBERING AND HONORING
DONALD MCCREADY

Report on philanthropy

 

When Donald McCready established the Carol M. Murphy '60 and Donald McCready Endowed Scholarship in 2017, he was fulfulling a wish of his life partner, the late Carol Murphy '60, to create a scholarship to benefit nursing students. McCready pledged a transformational $1 million to the Now We Fly campaign that was invested in the university's endowment and is now awarded annually to a student in the Young School of Nursing.

McCready sadly passed away in 2022. "Don was such a wonderful, generous man," says Vice President of Institutional Advancement Staci Shea. "He was a first-generation college student and he had a passion for supporting other first-generation students through this special scholarship in memory of Carol."

He was so passionate that in addition to the pledge for the scholarship, Regis also received an unexpected gift from McCready after he passed—a $1 million bequest for the Regis Fund. Unbeknownst to Regis, he had designated the university in his will after meeting one of his scholarship recipients, bringing McCready's lifetime giving to $2 million.

"Don's additional $1 million unrestricted bequest gift was a true blessing," says Shea. "His leadership gift had an immediate and significant impact on Regis, and his endowed gift will help students for many generations to come, carrying on his legacy—and Carol's—in perpetuity. We are so very grateful that Don believed in Regis and invested so much in our students."

Learn more about scholarships on the next page, and learn more about planned gifts at regiscollegelegacy.org.