Man leaves $80M for scholarships
Friends and fellow churchgoers remembered William H. Duff III tooling around Shadyside on his bicycle, an unpretentious man who claimed the Pirates and Boy Scouts as his first loves.
Many knew Duff, who suffered from cerebral palsy, lived on a trust. Few knew its size.
An $80 million scholarship fund established in the name of his parents came into being after Duff died Feb. 13 at age 76. Allegheny County high school seniors are eligible for more than $3.5 million in money from the Lola G. and William H. Duff II Scholarship Fund for the next school year.
Awards are based on academic merit, financial need or both, and cover the full four years of college. Scholarship America in St. Peter, Minn., is managing the program and the fund is being administered by National City Bank. Another $15 million is expected to be added to the fund from a separate trust by the end of the year.
The requirements are few: Students who apply must be planning to attend college full time to earn a bachelor's degree and have two years of schooling in Allegheny County, either at public or private high schools or at home. And applicants must be Protestants.
Neither the family's lawyer nor church pastor could explain the religious requirement, but admissions officials at local universities say such conditions are not unusual.
"We have scholarships sponsored by the Catholic Diocese that are, as you would guess, for Catholic students," said Michael Steidel, director of undergraduate admissions at Carnegie Mellon University and a member of the fund's advisory committee. "We also have scholarships that are only for students who have attended a particular high school."
Still, "I am not sure all students will like that requirement or think it is fair," said Marianne Budziszewski, dean of enrollment at Robert Morris University.
William H. Duff III attended Third Presbyterian Church in Shadyside, and his parents were devoted churchgoers, said Jack Meck, the family lawyer.
Duff III was a descendent of Peter Duff, a Scottish immigrant who was left stranded by low river waters in Pittsburgh in 1839 on his way to New Orleans from Nova Scotia. Peter Duff in 1840 founded Duff's Business College -- now Duff's Business Institute in Oakland -- and P. Duff and Sons, a molasses company.
At that company in the 1930s, William H. Duff II began manufacturing cake mixes, making the P. Duff and Sons one of few profitable local companies at the height of the Great Depression. Soon, Duff II was building a family fortune that endures even today.
The trust was valued at $1.2 million when Lola Duff died in 1960. Now, students have 80 million reasons to be thankful for the Duff's Gingerbread Mix that once was a staple in many American kitchens.
"I did not know anything about this fund until two weeks ago -- it has caught many people by surprise," said Budziszewski, a member of the scholarship's selection committee.
"This is a huge amount of money and a wonderful opportunity for students who live in this area," she said.
But it wasn't exactly what Third Presbyterian members expected from their friend, William H. Duff III.
"Everyone knew he was living off a trust, but no one had any idea it was this large," said the Rev. Vance Torbert, Third Presbyterian's pastor.
Additional Information:
To learn more
For more information on the Lola G. and William H. Duff II Scholarship Fund, call Scholarship America at (507) 931-1682 or visit www.duff.scholarshipamerica.org . Interested students have until April 1 to apply. Only the first 1,000 applications will be considered.
