Once a Lancer, always a Lancer. And no one embodies the spirit of his high school alma mater, Denver Lincoln High School, like Denver native Tim Marquez, Class of ’76. But despite his ‘Lancer Pride,’ Marquez is equally proud of the Denver Public School system that gave him the tools to climb the ladder, one that allowed him to reach heights that a young Marquez didn’t even imagine.
“I honestly don’t know if the word ‘college’ was ever even uttered here,” Marquez says in the Denver Scholarship Foundation video that helps explain the work of the Foundation. Sitting beside his wife, Bernadette, or ‘Bernie,’ as the DSF foundation calls her, the pair take a walk through his old haunts.
Whether ‘college’ was mentioned at Lincoln or not, his first stop after graduation was the academic challenging Colorado School of Mines. Mines is a place where just being smart is common. You’ve got to be a lot more than that!
Marquez survived the rigors of Mines and took his hard-earned engineering degree on a journey of stratospheric heights. Engineering, it’s said, is a field where you can make a mistake, but usually just one.
Learning the oil business from the ground up, he went on to found his own company, a company that went through a number of incarnations including a short tryst with Enron—yes, that Enron—and even getting sued by Erin Brokovich. Again, that Erin Brockovich.
Thankfully, those days, like Enron, are over. The Brockovich thing was dismissed. WHis company? Finding the right superlative would take too much time. Suffice to say, it’s successful—a word that sells it well short.
Marquez is a fellow whose reality outran his dreams…by a lot. But he’s also a man who’s married to a woman who, like him, likes the idea of ‘paying it forward.’ And the Denver Scholarship Fund embodies that virtue.
In 2006, Marquez and his wife, a native Michigander and Michigan State Spartan, along with the support of then Denver Mayor, now Senator John Hickenlooper and then DPS Superintendent, now Senator Michael Bennet, anted up a matching gift of $50 million to start the DSF.
As DSF grew, money for the DSF fund flowed in from various donors in Denver, Colorado and elsewhere. To say its growth has been anything but amazing would not be truthful! “I will tell you every day,” said DSF CEO Lorii Rabinowitz, “there are forty-million things I love about DFS. I’m awestruck!” Every student who has received a DSF scholarship—from community college to trade school to university—said Rabinowitz, has a remarkable story.
By Rabinowitz’ best estimate, the number of awarded scholarships is today approaching eleven thousand. But in addition to the grants, wherever the student goes, there is someone there to support them. There is also a person “embedded in DPS, “letting them know about DSF. Basically, if they’re interested in college or a tech school, DSF is interested in them.
While DSF is eager to provide a financial assist to its recipients—$3,600 each year up to five years—it does ask that students choose an in-state school. A good portion of DSF scholars, said Rabinowitz, enroll at Metropolitan State University-Denver.
Not surprising, said Rabinowitz, a number of awards are given to students who are “the first in their families” to attend college. Also, a number of awardees are from immigrant families.
But today, the specter of an unforgiving immigration system for many of the DSF winners is now an omnipresent reality. “There are external factors that we don’t control,” she said. Still, “we want to make sure our young people are safe and doing well.”
But new realities aside, Rabinowitz says there are so many amazing stories that she has witnessed, stories of ambition, perseverance and accomplishment. Stories of pure grit.
She tells the story of one young girl who never imagined herself as college material. “She was even nervous just to complete her application,” she remembered. Another factor, the young woman’s father was not sold on the idea of his daughter in college. But she not only enrolled and graduated from MSU-Denver, but she also fulfilled her dream of becoming a working pilot.
“When she graduated,” Rabinowitz said, the aviation grad told her how her father beamed with pride. “I’d never seen him cry,” she told Rabinowitz. He sobbed. “‘Mi hita,” he told her, “I am so proud of you.” Her accomplishment also broke the shackles on a father’s long held belief about a young woman attending college, said Rabinowitz.
When it was time for a younger daughter to graduate high school, Rabinowitz chuckled, the newly ‘awakened’ father insisted the young girls complete her college application.
Students receiving scholarship are all required to sign a Memorandum of Understanding that they maintain a good academic standing. Also, beyond the DSF money, they can also apply for additional assistance.
While Marquez and his wife have achieved a remarkable level of success, the money race holds no interest for them. They have enough, they say. Enough to give away.
Despite an early ambivalence about his college alma mater, time mellowed Marquez out. It took a few years, but he realized that his Mines education was the key that opened doors he might never even have knocked on. Today, if you find yourself strolling the grounds of Golden’s Colorado School of Mines, you’ll no doubt run into Marquez Hall. It’s a gift from Marquez and his wife. You might also see a student or two—maybe more—who are enrolled there thanks to some good grades and a generous gift from the couple and the Denver Scholarship Foundation.
