News and Progress

Scholarship recipient pays it forward

Business alumnus Chuck Stucke makes good on college promise

Nov. 11, 2008

Chad Smith, John Lothman and Chuck Stucke connected on campus Oct. 24, 2008. Smith started a chain of giving by providing a scholarship for Stucke. Stucke paid it forward by funding a scholarship for Lothman. Photo courtesy of the Robert J. Trulaske Sr. College of Business.

By Sarah Garber

A scholarship established in 1987 by Chad Smith, MBA '77, of Chicago has inspired a chain of giving in 2008.

Chuck Stucke, BA '93, MBA '95, is managing director of Guggenheim Partners LLC in New York and is chief investment officer of the firm’s wealth management practice. While earning his degrees at Mizzou, Stucke struggled to finance his education and worked a number of jobs to make ends meet. As an MBA student, he received Smith’s scholarship: the Goldman Sachs & Company Missouri Alumni Scholarship.

“Chad offered a scholarship to the leading student in finance that helped pay for books and supplies,” Stucke says. “I had never met Chad before winning the scholarship but was immensely grateful. And I said to myself, ‘If I ever make it, I’m going to pay this back by doing the same thing."

 ”In August 2008, the Robert J. Trulaske Sr. College of Business awarded the first Stucke Family Scholarship to graduate student John Lothman of St. Louis. To help ensure that the pattern of giving continues, Stucke wrote a letter to Lothman and subsequent scholarship recipients. He asks them to consider following his example if they achieve success.

Smith, Stucke and Lothman met for the first time on campus on Oct. 24, 2008. Their meeting serves as a message to future and fellow business alumni: “No matter how far you go, you should never forget from where you came and who helped you along the way,” Stucke says. To those who graduated and developed successful careers, “Don’t forget to look back to Columbia and pull some more of us through,” he says.