EAU CLAIRE (Press Release) —The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Foundation has
received a gift of $1.25 million to establish a permanently endowed
faculty chair in the sciences or mathematics at UW-Eau Claire.
The gift is the fulfillment of an estate gift from James and Anne
Ramsey in memory of James Ramsey's brother, U.S. Navy Lt. Oliver Marion
Ramsey, a Fairchild native and 1933 UW-Eau Claire graduate who later
graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy, served as a lieutenant in the
Navy during World War II and died in battle in 1942. James and Anne
Ramsey, who lived in Longwood, Fla., notified the UW-Eau Claire
Foundation of their planned gift in 2001. Anne Ramsey died in 2009, and
James Ramsey passed away in April 2012.
The Ramsey trust has designated an additional gift to the Foundation
to be made at the closing of the trust that will further add to the
Ramsey chair endowment, said Kimera Way, UW-Eau Claire Foundation
president.
The Oliver Marion Ramsey Endowed Chair is UW-Eau Claire's first fully
endowed faculty chair in the College of Arts and Sciences. The first
faculty recipient of the Ramsey endowed chair award will be announced
before the 2013-14 academic year.
"We are honored by this gift of support for a faculty position and
will gratefully fulfill James and Anne Ramsey's wish to memorialize
Lieutenant Oliver Ramsey's service to his country through a faculty
chair in his name," Way said. "This gift means so much as we continue to
uphold our standards for academic excellence in preparing our students
for success in an interconnected world, all while grappling with state
budgetary constraints. Investing in faculty excellence is a major focus
of the Foundation's efforts as we continue to reach out to alumni and
friends."
Oliver Marion Ramsey was only 14 when he was named valedictorian of
his graduating class at Fairchild High School, and he was only 18 when
he graduated from Eau Claire State Teachers College (now UW-Eau Claire)
in 1933. Marion, as his family called him, then attended the U.S. Naval
Academy and rose quickly to the rank of full lieutenant after his
graduation in 1937. In the fall of 1942, he was right-hand man to Rear
Adm. Norman Scott aboard the flagship Atlanta in the South Pacific. On
Nov. 27, 1942 — which would have been Marion Ramsey's 28th birthday —the
Ramsey family of rural Fairchild received the news that Marion had died
Nov. 13 in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. He had been buried at sea.
U.S. Navy Lt. Oliver Marion Ramsey
