As part of the West Virginia Universitys Building Greatness campaign, two West Virginia brothers who grew up in Wheeling have established a scholarship in memory of their father.
The William R. Totterdale Scholarship Fund has been endowed through gifts from Gregory Totterdale, of Irving, Texas, and his brother, Robert, from Pittsburgh. Both are WVU alumni.
“The Totterdale Scholarship will be of tremendous value to highly qualified students in the mathematical sciences and statistics,”said Jim Harner, chair of the Department of Statistics.”I greatly appreciate the scholarship established and know it will have a major impact on our degree programs and the recipient students.”
This merit-based scholarship is reserved for students majoring in mathematics, statistics or the interdisciplinary program in industrial mathematics and statistics. Preference will be given to students from Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, those areas where William Totterdale traveled in his work.
“My brother and I believe that this scholarship is a fitting tribute to our father since we hope to help the children of parents whose occupation is in the building trades,”said Robert Totterdale.
Robert, a 1974 graduate of the colleges statistics program, recently retired from his position as a partner in Accenture (formerly Anderson Consulting), where his area of responsibility was information technology consulting. Totterdale has served on the Advisory Board of the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences since 1996.
Greg earned two degrees from WVU s Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, a bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1972 and a masters degree in statistics in 1974. He is currently president and managing partner of the Totterdale Group, a marketing analysis and consulting firm. His work involves applying mathematical and statistical modeling to marketing issues and business decisions.
The Totterdale brothers credit both their father and mother, Dorothy, with inspiring them to attend college, but their father was particularly responsible for their ending up at WVU and helping them financially. Family circumstances did not enable the elder Totterdale to attend college. Thus, he made sure his sons would have the opportunity by providing financial support and encouragement.
“Our father was a strong role model for my brother and me,”Greg recalled.”The way he lived his life, the values he instilled in us set the course for our lives.”
To further help the Eberly College financially in flexible ways, the Totterdale brothers also have established an opportunities fund to support the programming of the college with special attention to opportunities in statistics.
“Its been exciting for me to serve on the Advisory Board of the college which I graduated from,”Robert said.”Its great to see positive change and the quality of teaching and research thats going on in the Eberly College. My brother and I hope other graduates will be challenged to think about future support for WVU .”