Supporting Aspiring Physicians

By Susan Houston Klaus

Conversation with Ruth Scott Inspires Couple to Establish Scholarship Fund

Sue and Roy Brunz know well what a gift to the University of Nebraska Foundation can do. For many years, they have supported the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in areas close to their hearts.

 A conversation over breakfast in Palm Springs a few years ago with Ruth Scott led the Brunzes to extend their support to a new area: the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Medicine. Ruth Scott, along with her late husband, Bill, is one of the most transformative donors in the University of Nebraska’s history. The Scotts’ generosity has benefited students, faculty and programs across all the University of Nebraska campuses. For UNMC, just a few examples of their giving include the Ruth and Bill Scott Student Plaza; the Munroe-Meyer Institute; the College of Nursing facility in Lincoln; the Frederick F. Paustian Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center; and the Douglas A. Kristensen Rural Health Education Complex in Kearney.

Sue and Roy Brunz, both Nebraska natives, are 1973 UNL graduates and University of Nebraska Foundation Trustees. Sue is from Lincoln. Roy grew up in rural Oxford, attending kindergarten through eighth grade in a one-room country school with no running water.

Sue earned an education degree in speech pathology and audiology; Roy earned his degree in civil engineering. After relocating to the Dallas, Texas, area after they married, Sue worked as a speech pathologist and later as an elementary school principal. Roy began his civil engineering career with the Texas Department of Transportation and later became an owner of a transportation consulting firm with multiple offices in Texas. Graduating from the university is an achievement neither of them takes for granted, Sue said. Something her father told her on graduation day has always stayed with her.

“I am the youngest of three children in my family, and I was the third one to graduate from UNL. I don’t think I’ll ever forget my dad telling me that it was one of the most important days of his life because he witnessed all three of his children getting their college degrees, an opportunity that he never had,” she said. “I will remember that all of my life.”

Over the years, the Brunzes have shown their appreciation to UNL by creating and supporting several scholarship funds for the UNL College of Engineering and College of Education and Human Sciences.

Both Roy and Sue remember chatting with Ruth Scott before the program that morning in California.

“I went into the breakfast meeting not knowing who was who, and so we sat beside Ruth,” Roy said. “Then the program started, and everybody there from the medical school was saying, ‘Thanks, Ruth, for all your help on doing this and that and everything.’”

That’s when Roy put the name and the face together. After the event, he was motivated to find out more about what the Scotts were doing to support UNMC.

“Talking with Ruth, and then Dr. [Jeffrey] Gold, [president of the University of Nebraska System], “it all made sense to me that we need to help the medical community and Nebraska as much as we can,” he said.

Sue talked with Ruth that day about their shared teaching degrees from the university and was impressed by the impact the Scott family’s philanthropy has had on medicine.

“I think that’s what resonated with me in visiting with her,” Sue said. “Their donations have provided such advancements in health care and everything else, not just in Nebraska. That has an effect globally on finding cures for various diseases that we don’t have cures for yet.”

The Brunzes were inspired to create a scholarship fund for students in the UNMC College of Medicine so aspiring health care professionals can continue their education and forge new discoveries and treatments.

“Hopefully it will provide students with the financial support to complete their medical degrees. That’s number one,” Roy said. “And hopefully it creates more doctors to either go into research or specialization in various fields of medicine.”

There will always be a need to educate more physicians to develop cures for existing as well as new diseases, Sue said.

“I can’t think of a better way to donate money than for more doctors and research to develop those cures,” she said.