School of Nursing Receives $8.4 Million Gift

04/05/2018

Saint Louis University’s Development Division has announced that the School of Nursing is the recipient of a bequest gift totaling $8.4 million. 

The generous gift – the largest in the School of Nursing’s history and among the largest in the University’s history – was made by the estate of alumna Mary K. Hoppe.

The entirety of the gift will be used to create the Dr. and Mrs. Robert C. Hoppe Endowed Scholarship, which will assist multiple students in every program offered at the school. A national leader in nursing education since its founding in 1928, the School of Nursing provides bachelor’s, master’s, post-master’s nurse practitioner certificate and doctoral programs. It seeks to fulfill its mission of education and leadership in the development of nursing as a discipline and profession through teaching, research, practice and service in ways consistent with the Catholic, Jesuit values of the University. 

“I was delighted to receive this gift,” said Teri Murray, Ph.D., dean of the School of Nursing.

“The endowed scholarship has been designated as a financial need-based scholarship, and I can envision how this award will help many students complete the nursing education program with little to no educational debt. The Hoppes’ generosity in providing educational assistance for students will live eternally through the lives of the scholarship recipients and the countless numbers of patients each student touches.”

“A degree from Saint Louis University transforms lives, preparing students not only to do well in the world, but to do good,” agreed SLU President Fred P. Pestello, Ph.D. 

“Scholarships remain a top philanthropic priority at Saint Louis University, and through the extraordinary generosity of alumni like Mrs. Hoppe, bright young people will have access to the rigorous, character-building educational experience that our Jesuit university is uniquely positioned to offer. This posthumous gift will benefit students for generations to come. It is greatly appreciated.”

Both Mrs. and Dr. Hoppe were 1951 graduates from Saint Louis University; she from the School of Nursing and he from the School of Medicine. After graduation, the couple married and returned to Houston, their hometown; they had no children. Dr. Hoppe died in 2002, and Mrs. Hoppe eventually moved to Charlotte, N.C., to live with her niece. She died in July 2017.

“Mary Katherine Hoppe clearly had a dream in mind when she designated this truly life-changing bequest,” said Mary Smiley Johnston, Mrs. Hoppe’s niece. “Her favorite song was Somewhere Over the Rainbow, an iconic song of hopes realized and dreams come true. May this gift to the Saint Louis University School of Nursing be that realized hope and that dream come true for the future nurses studying there.” 

The school plans to honor Dr. and Mrs. Hoppe at its 90^th anniversary celebration this fall.