Extending support for the scholar athlete

John F. Walsh '65 not only remembers his college days with fondness, he remembers the four-year football scholarship he was awarded that enabled him to realize the goal of a BC education. In appreciation of this assistance, he recently gave $500,000 to the Ever to Excel campaign to help future scholar athletes. "My hope is that the gift will enable the University to touch others' lives in a positive way, the way it did mine, and help students develop values that will sustain them for a lifetime," he said. Recalling the high academic standards athletes were held to—and continue to be held to today—he noted that such discipline serves students long past graduation.

Even though he has lived away from the Boston area for a while, Walsh said he has "stayed close to what was happening at the University" and recently returned for a campus visit as the guest of Athletic Director Gene DeFilippo. It's the emotional ties, Walsh said, that characterize the strong sense of pride Boston College alumni feel, regardless of how much time has passed since they left the campus. Walsh, who grew up in Quincy, Massachusetts, is now retired and lives in Westport, Connecticut, with his wife, Sara, and three daughters.