NEWS

To Honor and Cherish

"My husband was an exceedingly bright man with a great sense of integrity and hard work," says Jeane Erley. "He was very successful, and I wanted to honor that success."

Jeane Erley '51 decided the best way to honor her husband, Richard '51, was to endow the Richard A. Erley Leadership Development Program at the College of Business.

Mr. Erley has dementia with Lewy bodies, which is like having Alzheimer's and Parkinson's combined. He resides in a memory facility next door to their home.

Mr. Erley worked at several financial institutions before joining two colleagues to establish their own company in 1963. The company, Hutchinson, Shockey and Erley, Co., (now HSE) underwrites and sells municipal bonds to institutional investors. The company started out with three principals and two secretaries, but grew to over 100 employees with offices in three cities and is still going strong. In 1995, Richard Erley retired as chairman.

The Erleys had a good life together. They met on the University of Illinois campus where he was president of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity and a Bronze Tablet scholar and she was president of Alpha Omicron Pi sorority. They married in 1951, just after they both graduated (his degree was economics, hers was home economics). They raised their three children in the Chicago area, then moved to La Jolla, California, in 1977.

So Mrs. Erley says her husband's story is about success. But while that is true in part, this is really a love story. You can hear it in her voice. It is a firm, vibrant voice, despite the fact that she is in her 70s. She is a strong woman, but she misses her husband. "We had a very hard year," she says. "It's a tragedy that he was struck down like this."

"My husband was very loyal to the College of Business. He always felt that he got a great education at Illinois," she observes. "I wanted to honor him and his character. Dick worked hard; he had enormous integrity. He knew how to work with people, to get good people to work with him, and
to share the profits with them. I wanted to establish some sort of program that reflected those qualities: giving your word and keeping it, working hard, being fair and honest."

So Mrs. Erley called the University of Illinois Foundation to see what she could do to honor her husband. The couple had supported the College's Investors in Business Education fund for many years but Mrs. Erley was interested in underwriting a broader program to introduce students to business leaders, who visit campus and speak first-hand about leadership and "real world" business practices, the one thing Mr. Erley felt was a little lacking in his own education.

In a series of discussions with College representatives, the Richard A. Erley Leadership Development Program was established. The wording of the gift agreement is pretty dry; it doesn't talk of love or kindness or admiration, but it is a tangible demonstration of Jeane Erley's feelings for her husband. And it means that others will be influenced and guided by the same principles that guided Mr. Erley, allowing him to continue to serve as an example to others, despite his illness.

Gift Establishes Erley Endowment Fund

The Richard A. Erley Leadership Development Program will provide support, specialized training, and distinctive educational experiences to help College of Business students prepare for and gain a competitive advantage in the business world. The goal of the Program is to graduate business leaders who exemplify academic excellence, high ethical standards, and hard work, values Richard A. Erley endorsed and practiced throughout his distinguished career in the field of municipal bonds. The Program will support a speakers series through which visiting business leaders are invited to campus to share their experiences with students.

Leave your legacy with an engraved
brick or classroom chair in
the new Business Instructional Facility
College Brick Program