Dean & Brenda DuCray

Dean: I grew up poor and had to work my way through school, but back then, tuition was about $129 a semester. I could pump gas and stack books in the library and pay my bill in full. For kids these days, that’s simply not possible.

We give to NIU because we’re grateful for the education I received here. I could compete with the ‘big boys’ right out of the gate, and for that, I am forever grateful.
 

Accountancy Chair, Jim Young: The DuCray Excellence Fund supports every aspect of our program. It will help us endow our existing alumni professorship, provide desperately needed scholarships for students, and discretionary funds for the department. If faculty members need to attend a research conference, the DuCray Excellence Fund will support that. If faculty or students need a data set to analyze, we can buy it. The DuCrays are silent partners helping others create their own legacies at NIU; they don’t even ask for their names on the gifts they match. We have one of the best programs in the nation, and alumni like Dean DuCray help keep it that way.