Vogt Foundation, Heuser give $3 million for scholarships; others match it

The Henry Vogt Foundation and its president, Henry V. Heuser Jr., have given $3 million; other donors have pooled their gifts to match it.

“We are especially thrilled about these gifts because they directly impact our students,” said UofL President James Ramsey.  “We’ll be targeting more donations for scholarships in the stretch run of our comprehensive campaign.”

UofL’s Hallmark scholars program will be renamed the Henry Vogt Scholarships in honor of the Vogt gift. Kentucky students who have a 3.75 GPA in high school and score at least a 30 on the ACT or 1320 on the SAT are eligible to apply for the awards, which include full tuition and an annual $3,500 educational allowance.

“Helping young people get an education is the best investment we can make to improve our community,” Heuser said.

UofL also announced that the “Charting Our Course: A Campaign for Kentucky’s Premier Metropolitan Research University” campaign has passed its original $750 million goal. The total to date is $755,337,793, Ramsey said.

The campaign began in 2007 with the intent to reach its goal by July, 2013. Two years ago, however, the university’s Board of Trustees decided to push the goal to $1 billion and extend the campaign to July, 2014.

Also on Tuesday, UofL officials announced that two additional co-chairs have been added to the campaign: Ulysses Lee “Junior” Bridgeman and Charles “Chuck” Denny. Both are UofL graduates. A former UofL basketball player, Bridgeman is founder and president of Bridgeman Foods LLC.  Denny is regional president of Kentucky/Tennessee banking of PNC Bank.

J. Chester Porter, founder and chairman emeritus of Porter Bancorp, is the chairman emeritus for the campaign. Heuser also is a campaign co-chair as was Owsley Brown Frazier, who died in August.