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Scholarships extend couple’s love of local education

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By Beth Anspach, Contributing Writer 3:34 PM Friday, November 19, 2010

Though Robert and Nancy Schumacher never had children of their own, they developed a love of education and the local schools in Butler Twp. Nancy, who passed away in 2000, grew up in on a 100-acre farm in Butler Twp., along with her sisters, Bonnie Robinson, Mary Grisez and Barbara Wegner.

“I still live in the original homestead,” said Robinson. “We were raised in the next house down on Dog Leg Road on the family farm.”

The four girls were encouraged by their parents to go to school and continue their education. All four went to college. “We all had the opportunity to go,” Robinson said. “So we really didn’t think anything about it.”

As a result, all have advanced degrees, But it was the oldest sister, Nancy, in particular, who decided, along with her husband, Bob, to set aside a portion of their estate to help ensure that needy Vandalia-Butler students could have an opportunity to go to college.

According to Bethany Rief, public relations coordinator for Vandalia-Butler City Schools, the district has partnered with the Dayton Foundation to create and administer the fund, which has been named the Nancy Ellen Wegner Schumacher and Robert Frederick Schumacher Scholarship Fund. Every year, the fund will grant $1,000 scholarships to two Butler High School seniors who plan to pursue their studies in math, engineering or science. The first scholarships will be awarded this May.

Nancy Schumacher graduated from Butler High School in 1949 and was valedictorian of her class. Though she held a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Ohio University, she spent only about three years working full time in that field for General Motors before marrying Bob and devoting herself to full-time homemaking and her love of cooking, which she said in her own writing, she approached the same way she did chemistry. “If I can’t find a recipe that I like,” Nancy wrote, “I make one up.”

Bob, who graduated from Kiser High School in Dayton, was a manufacturing engineer who worked for Chrysler Corporation for more than 30 years and was a World War II veteran. “Bob passed away in 2008,” Robinson said.

When Robinson remembers her older sister and brother in law, she thinks of how precise and organized they both were. “I would get up in the middle of the night and I would see Nancy always studying,” Robinson said. “She was always doing something for school. She kept very good records. You could always count on that. Both of them were very devoted to the local schools and education. They wanted the young people to have opportunities for higher education. And they knew there are always people who need help. Whether it’s food or whatever it may be. They knew they could help.”

Contact this columnist at (937) 475-8212 or banspach@woh.rr.com.

HEREABOUTS beth anspach

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