this is our moment: campaign proves that giving - Morningside College

IN HONOR OF HIS PARENTS:
“YOU CAN START SMALL”
Jesse and Elizabeth Ducommun
people think they have to
make a lot of money before
they can donate a sizeable
amount, but that’s not true,”
said Donald Ducommun
1961. “You can start small.
“Often
My father started a scholarship
fund with $1,000, which today is a very nice size.”
His father, the late Jesse Ducommun 1927, established
the Jesse C. and Elizabeth B. Ducommun Endowed
Scholarship Fund in 1965. Today it is worth more than $1.1
million and provides substantial scholarships to Morningside
College students each year.
‘”My father didn’t specify that the recipient be an ‘A’ student
or study any specific major,” said Ducommun, who is chair
of the college’s Florida Alumni Gifts Campaign Committee.
“He left that entirely up to the college to decide.”
One year after the scholarship fund was started, his father
passed away.
“I looked at the scholarship when he died, and it wasn’t
very big,” said Donald Ducommun. “But I thought this is the
way I can honor my parents and give back to the college.
I’ve been taking care of the fund since then, and my son is
going to look after it when I am gone.”
While two sizeable gifts from his parents’ estates were
made to the fund, most of the growth has come from
interest income, his annual gifts, and matching gifts made
by his employer, Amoco Oil Company. Ducommun, who
recently retired as the company’s
senior territory manager, earned
a bachelor’s degree in biology at
Morningside.
He recalled that he had to pay
$400 tuition for his first semester
of college and that someone on
campus said to him: “You are
only paying 25 percent of what
it costs to educate you. The rest
of your education is being paid
for by alumni and friends of the
college.”
He never forgot that and said,
“It’s one reason I want to give
back to the college. It’s still true
today—students can’t pay for
everything, even if they work. It’s
the generosity and benevolence
of other people that has made it
possible for Morningside College
to have a devoted faculty and the
facilities needed to educate students.”
His father worked his way through college, attending
Morningside for three years before transferring to the
University of Iowa to complete his engineering degree.
“My father used to ride 50 miles one way on a bicycle on
weekends to do carpentry work in order to pay his way
through school,” Donald Ducommun said. “The Ducommun
coat of arms has the motto, ‘Nothing without work.’ My
parents exemplified that in their lives. They were very high
achievers and excelled at whatever they did.”
At Morningside, his father found time to serve as radio
announcer for the college’s 100-watt station, KFMR. His uncle,
Walter Ducommun, built the set and served as radio operator
for the station. The station broadcast, among other programs,
chapel services, student recitals, and basketball tournaments.
Jesse Ducommun had always wanted to be a teacher but
was unable to support his family on a teacher’s salary, so
he began working in the oil industry. He eventually served
on the board of Standard Oil and then as vice president of
manufacturing at the American Oil Company. As recently
as June of 2005, he was noted in the journal Chemistry
and Industry by author Trevor Kletz for leading Amoco in
being one of the first companies to try to prevent commonly
recurring accidents on the job. To that end, Ducommun
published a series of nine books from 1955 to 1964 that
used simple language and illustrations to show how these
accidents could be prevented.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 34
MORNINGSIDER | 19