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Class of 1961 Scholarship Fund

Class Rallies for 50-Year Gift

Tuition at the UCSF School of Dentistry has increased more than 7,000 percent over the past 50 years. If everything else followed suit, milk would now cost $75/gallon and a night at the movies for two would set you back about a hundred dollars, not including popcorn and a drink.

This got Pete Giers '61 and some of his classmates thinking. When we went to school in 1957," recalls Giers, tuition was $350 a year. Now it's $26,000." Prohibitively expensive are two words that come to mind. Aside from the fortunate few who have a means of paying for their tuition, it's not unusual for graduates today to begin their careers at least $150,000 in debt.

Approaching the 50th anniversary of their graduation from UCSF, some members of the class of '61 began to talk about the idea of a 50-year class gift, a tradition at some schools. UCSF is really where our ability to give money to anybody began," says one member. This would be a good time to return some of what we have received as a result of the four years we spent there."

The group thought a scholarship would be a good vehicle for this gift. They saw it as a way of looking out for the young men and women following in their footsteps – recognition of the education they received in the hope that others would be afforded the same. While they may not be able to change the tuition, they could do something to alleviate the year-upon-year expense for new students.

Realizing alums may feel pulled in other directions, they opened the call up to give to any area of the school in commemoration of their reunion, similar to the way UC Berkeley structures its 50-year class gift. Any donation to the school is a good one, regardless of what it's directed toward.

Still, they'd like to see the Class of 1961 Scholarship Fund reach $50,000 before they all gather at the campus in 2011.

The drive started three years ago, five years before their 50th reunion. Not by accident, $50,000 comes to roughly $1,000 per class¬mate. Spread over five years, that's $200 a year – a very manageable sum. To date, they've achieved half of their goal and with a little less than half of the time remaining, they're optimistic. This idea can definitely work," says Giers, but it's going to require all of us to put our shoulder to the plow. It would be great if the efforts of our class inspire other classes to do the same."

Their vision of the future if the idea catches on? We hope that some day every student who enters the UCSF School of Dentistry automatically receives a scholarship."

Early Contributors to the Class Gift

  • Dick Agee
  • Harold Coffman
  • John Conley
  • Bob Conner
  • Richard Cook
  • Jim Davis
  • Richard Gaebel
  • Pete Giers
  • San Gurnee
  • Dan Hall
  • Don Johnson
  • Jim Miller
  • George Ochikubo
  • Heber Olson
  • Anatoly Ray
  • Bob Schimke
  • Jim Silverman
  • Bob Weis
  • Mel Wishan