By Jeff Wilson

Brian Wilson has deep roots at SIU, and his decision to endow a $100,000 scholarship fund in the College of Business and Analytics only strengthens that connection.

“My mother and father met at SIU, and several other family members went there,” he said. “It was probably the first university I was exposed to as a kid.”

The Brian Wilson and Family Finance Scholarship Fund will benefit students from Southern Illinois who are studying finance and other business-related majors.

A Waterloo native, SIU was on the short list of possible universities for Wilson to attend, but the scholarship support he received his freshman year made the choice simple.

“That really clinched the deal for me and my parents,” he said. “I always thought that someday I would like to pay that back.”

Wilson had a typical college experience. He lived at Thompson Point and studied finance. He participated in intramural sports and played pickup basketball at the Student Recreation Center. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1991.

“I enjoyed the experience all around – the academics, the social life, the campus, everything. It was very positive,” he said.

After SIU, Wilson earned a master’s degree from the University of Miami and took a job with Ryder System. Over a 15-year career with Ryder, he worked in Miami, Detroit, Dallas, Toronto, and Singapore. He was then recruited into the world of private equity and is now the chief financial officer in North America for Barentz, a Dutch chemical distributor.

Today, he and his wife, Kris, live in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, and have two adult children who make their homes in the Chicago area.

“It all started back with the finance education at SIU,” he said.

His SIU and professional experience intersected when fellow Saluki, Chuck Lounsbury, became senior vice president for supply chain solutions at Ryder System in the early 2000s.

As a student, Wilson had heard of Lounsbury from his professors. Lounsbury, a 1965 SIU graduate and member of the COBA Hall of Fame, had an illustrious career in the business world.

Recently, Lounsbury made a $500,000 donation to establish the Charles and Barbara Lounsbury Endowed Scholarship in the College of Business and Analytics.

“Chuck Lounsbury ended up working two offices down from me, and we got to know each other and shared memories of SIU,” Wilson said. “I saw an article about his gift in the SIU Alumni Association magazine, and it sparked interest in me to go ahead and fulfill my plan to repay my scholarship.”

Beyond financially supporting SIU students, Wilson hopes his scholarship helps drive the college and SIU forward.

“I want to do whatever I can to help the school continue to attract the best students and professors and allow more people the opportunity to get their education from SIU’s College of Business and Analytics,” he said.

To learn more about making a similar gift, visit siuf.org.

By Jeff Wilson

Eric Larson always enjoyed being in and around nature.

Growing up on a farm in Wyanet, Illinois, it was that passion that led him to choose Southern Illinois University Carbondale over the University of Illinois.

“I knew since I was about 10 years old that I wanted to be a forester,” he said. “There are not many trees around U of I. Southern Illinois was the perfect place for me. I fell in love with it.”

That decision began a journey that led Larson from SIU, to East Texas, to Tennessee, to Wisconsin, and back to Southern Illinois. He recently donated $25,000 to establish the Eric Larson Forestry Scholarship Endowment Fund.

“Through the years, I realized how much I learned at SIU,” Larson said. “At first, I didn’t know if I was going to be financially successful. As it turned out, I did pretty well and wanted to give back.”

While attending SIU, Larson was a member of the Forestry Club and enjoyed several field trips, including treks to Missouri and Gulfport, Mississippi. He spent a summer in Oregon after his junior year working for the Bureau of Land Management.

“After graduating high school with a class of about 20 students, it was great to blend in with students from around the world,” he said. “I was fortunate to have great instructors, and these field trips awakened my interest in forestry. It was worth seeing things in action more than just reading about them in a book.”

After graduating from SIU in 1969, he earned a master’s degree from Texas A&M and began working in the forest industry helping manage 600,000 acres of timberland in East Texas.

“Then I started my own business working for non-industrial landowners. I advised them and did things like planting trees, controlled burning, timber sales, and I marked individual trees to be removed, made inventories, wrote sales contracts, and I looked after logging jobs. I did the whole gamut,” he said. “It was a lot of hard work, but I always enjoyed being in nature.”

He also bought some timberland and practiced what he learned in school on his own property. Later, he had jobs with the state government in Tennessee and with a lumber company in Wisconsin.

Larson hopes his scholarship fund in the School of Forestry and Horticulture will invigorate the next generation of passionate foresters.

“I hope it encourages students to stick with it,” he said. “When I was going to school, it wasn’t always easy paying the bills, and I was more fortunate than most. This is just another tool to help them achieve their goals.”

Dr. Karl Williard, director of the School of Forestry and Horticulture, said Larson’s gift will make an impact on students through scholarships and supporting camps, which immerse students in forest and park management issues in other regions, including the Southeastern, Northeastern, and Western United States.

“This endowed scholarship is critical to future Saluki Foresters to support them in their academic journey and to lower the cost of participating in our Summer Field Camp, which is such a formative part of our student’s training,” he said.

To learn more about how to make a similar gift, visit siuf.org.

Eclipses reconnect donors to campus, region

By Jeff Wilson

Between the two total solar eclipses that crossed over the Southern Illinois University campus, Kevin and Denise Morefield made an astronomical impact of their own – a generous planned gift to establish the Morefield Opportunities Scholarship Endowment Fund.

Established in 2021, the scholarship fund benefits Murphysboro graduates in need of a financial boost.

“Our scholarship is about helping others have the same opportunity I had,” Kevin said. “My choice to attend SIU changed my life profoundly, so we decided to pay that forward to others.”

The Morefield’s planned gift is a bequest, which means they have indicated the amount they will direct to SIU through their estate plan. They also decided to partially fund the scholarship while they’re both still living.

“Planned giving is a worry-free and easy way to give back. The endowment will keep giving in perpetuity with funds that, by definition, we didn’t need,” Kevin said. “After making the decision to contribute, I found myself thinking often about the lives the scholarship would affect. That led us to start early and partially fund the scholarship so we could see some of the impact in our lifetime.”

Kevin, a graduate of Murphysboro High School, received his bachelor’s degree from SIU in cinema and photography in 1985. That passion for photography has led him around the globe chasing eclipses. As fate would have it, that trek has brought him back to SIU twice, once in 2017 and again in 2024.

“This was my eighth total solar eclipse. I have witnessed them in the outback of Australia, the polar Arctic, an atoll in the South Pacific, the Atacama Desert in Chile, and in Antarctica,” he said. “For there to be two over my hometown and alma mater is mindboggling and truly unique.”

After witnessing the grandeur of solar eclipses worldwide, the opportunity to be part of two so close to home was particularly powerful.

“The way SIU embraced these events is heartwarming. Eclipses always bring together a diverse group of people all with a common goal. That kind of broad feeling of community is rare and should be treasured,” Kevin said. “If someone had told me back in 1984 that 40 years later, I would be having a beer at PKs while everyone talked about total solar eclipses, I would not have believed it!”

To learn more about making a planned gift, visit siufgiving.org.