Three Gifts Enrich Fisher Urban Scholarship

Three gifts to St. John Fisher University totaling more than $700,000 will enrich Fisher’s Urban Scholarship. Launched in 2020, the $40,000 scholarship is available to students enrolling in the University who resides in the City of Rochester. Since its inception, the Urban Scholars Program has helped to increase the number of students from the city of Rochester benefiting from a Fisher education.

The new gifts will support three Fisher students over the course of their four years at Fisher and create endowment funds for each Urban Scholar. The Urban Scholar endowment program began in 2021 with a $200,000 gift from Fisher Trustee Diana L. Nole and her husband, Angelo Nole.

R. Wayne and Beverly A. LeChase donated $250,000 to create the R. Wayne and Beverly A. LeChase Urban Scholar Award. Additionally, Mr. LeChase’s company, LeChase Construction, a full-service construction management and general contracting firm, also donated $250,000 to the University to create a second endowed fund, the LeChase Construction Urban Scholar Award.

The LeChases have a legacy of philanthropy at the University. Mr. LeChase is a Trustee Emeritus of Fisher’s Board of Trustees and honorary chair of Fisher Forward, the University’s comprehensive fundraising campaign. They are members of the Presidents Society, which acknowledges philanthropists who have made lifetime gifts to the University totaling $1 million or more.

Patrick Cunningham, retired CEO of Manning & Napier Advisors, Inc., established an endowed scholarship, which is named the Patrick Cunningham Urban Scholar Award, with a gift of more than $200,000. In 2012, he gave a gift in memory of his wife, JoEll, in support of the University’s Victor E. Salerno Center for American Enterprise. Cunningham spent 24 years at Manning & Napier before retiring as CEO in 2016, and remains active in the community, serving on the boards of the Wilmot Cancer Institute, Rochester Museum and Science Center, and the Rochester Area Community Foundation.

“Endowments of this nature secure the longevity and sustainability of the scholarship, ensuring future generations of Fisher students will have access to an affordable educational experience,” said Dr. Gerard J. Rooney, president of the University. “The University was founded to meet the needs of Rochester area students and I am grateful to Wayne and Beverly LeChase, LeChase Construction, and Patrick Cunningham for their support of this scholarship and our mission.”