University of Oregon Graduates Give $1 Million for Need-Based Scholarships.

EUGENE, Ore. -- University of Oregon:

--Joel McCloud, President of McCloud Property Acquisitions, and Colleen McCloud, Retired Executive Vice President in the Los Angeles Office of Foote, Cone and Belding Advertising Agency, Want to Help Students

A Southern California couple who struggled to pay for college are making it easier for future students to attend the University of Oregon. Joel and Colleen McCloud of Torrance, Calif., dedicated their recent $1 million pledge to scholarships for needy students.

"We believe that every kid deserves the opportunity to get a good education," says Joel McCloud, president of McCloud Property Acquisitions, who grew up in Portland, Ore. and who earned his MBA from the UO in 1967. "We both came from working class families that had great difficulties trying to help us through school. And we were luckier than the kids today. Tuition back then cost only $300 a quarter. With college costs rising prohibitively, it's become increasingly difficult for families.

"My dad was an oil burner repairman who died my senior year in high school," Joel says. "I had to pay my way through school at Portland State and the UO with a few small scholarships and jobs ranging from convenience store clerk to ambulance attendant."

Colleen grew up in Sweet Home, Ore., where her father worked as a logger when work was available. "He sometimes worked only five months a year, but my mother made it clear from the time my brother and I were little that we were both going to college," says the 1967 UO speech graduate and retired executive vice president in the Los Angeles office of Foote, Cone and Belding advertising agency. "My senior year, my mom started putting a little aside so, with my parents' support, taking out loans and working for the Forest Service every summer, I was able to go to college."

"The McClouds are a wonderful example of the value of a university education to create a better life not only for college graduates themselves but for others," says UO President Dave Frohnmayer. "Their generosity will make it possible for hundreds of students to achieve what they did and give back to their own communities."

The McClouds met at a Friday night dance at the Erb Memorial Union on the UO campus when she was a junior and he was a graduate student. They married in 1968.

Colleen was inspired by the late Professor Glenn Starlin to find a career she loved and make the most of it. "I took his Introduction to Broadcasting course, which was at 8 a.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and you would fail if you missed a single class," she remembers. "The minute he started speaking, I fell in love. He had wonderful stories. He'd been around the world. He was a consultant to the USSR. Everything was interesting. Because of him, I went into speech and took advertising and broadcasting courses."

The McClouds have no children of their own, but have always had an interest in helping children. They are longtime supporters of the Switzer Center in Torrance, a school for children with learning and behavior problems.

The McClouds' gift is a contribution to Campaign Oregon: Transforming Lives, the UO's $600-million fundraising initiative.