UMass Magazine Online

Winter 2005

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Foundations

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A Fruitful Partnership

A New Kind of Farm a New Breed of Farmer

Dear One Absent This Long While

Foundations

Going the Distance
A full complement of O'Keefe scholars feels a lot like family

–Deborah Klenotic




	Proud Peabody residents: Frank and Patricia O’Keefe keep in touch with their scholarship recipients, from left to right, Alyssa Brown ’05, Brian Pinheiro ’04 and Jessica Lupo ’07. (photo by Ben Barnhart)

THE DISTANCE FROM PEABODY, MASS., to the University of Massachusetts Amherst is a hundred miles, but it can feel like a thousand to a high school student with more hope than money for college.

As Frank O’Keefe Jr. ’51 and his wife, Patricia, walked up the brick path of the University Club courtyard to join three students from Peabody High School, it was plain to see that a sense of community makes for the shortest distance between two points.
“How’s your mother? Does she like her new house?” Patricia asked one of the young women. And with that, the group of students they’ve brought to UMass Amherst through the Frank R. and Patricia F. O’Keefe Endowed Scholarship Fund was catching up on news like family.

The O’Keefes had met Brian Pinheiro ’04, Alyssa Brown ’05, and Amy Perrella ’06 before, but lunch on this spring day was especially meaningful, celebrating Brian’s graduation as the first O’Keefe scholar. The fourth is Jessica Lupo ’07 and the newest, Ryan Mellville ’08, arrived in the fall of 2004. Their goal is to provide a scholarship to one Peabody student a year every year.

“This is our first year with four kids,” said Frank, who himself graduated from Peabody and UMass Amherst. “It’s a joy to see Brian finish, our first scholar.”

He noted that when he and Patricia set up the scholarship, which covers tuition and fees for an entire four years of undergraduate work, they didn’t yet have their four grandchildren. “In a way, these students were our surrogates,” he warmly admitted.

Brian, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in accounting, planned to take just one week of vacation before starting the master’s program in accounting at UMass Amherst. He’ll pursue a career in business, as Frank did after graduating with an economics degree in 1951.

Amy is a sociology major, and Alyssa, a biochemistry and molecular biology major, plans on medical school.

“I’m so happy that I’ll be able to go to med school without any undergraduate loans to pay off,” said Alyssa, who was living with her mom in a mobile home when she was awarded the O’Keefe scholarship. She was looking forward to a summer internship at Baystate Medical Center.

“My wife and I aren’t looking for the valedictorians, the salutatorians,” said Frank, who clearly loves the leather-manufacturing town he grew up in. “We want to find kids who have done well but for whom the scholarship will really make the difference. This has been a most rewarding experience for both of us.”

The O’Keefes have a connection with their students. They keep in touch, and they help them get answers to questions on campus if necessary. Each spring, the couple announces the new scholarship winner at the Peabody High School awards night and hosts a dinner for all their scholars. And, of course, there are future college graduation gatherings to look forward to.

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