Why I Give

Honoring a Mentor

Peg McKenzie Milbourn (left) and Jane Milbourn Neubauer

"If you had a million dollars to give to Denison," Peg McKenzie Milbourn '67 asked her daughter Jane Milbourn Neubauer '91, "what would you do with it?" They were in Peg's kitchen mixing up a batch of brownies. Jane, an economics major knew right away. "Honor faculty," she tells her mother. "It was a no-brainer after that," Peg recalls

And the first professor Jane thought of was Emeritus Professor of Economics Dick Lucier. “He was such an engaging, inspiring kind of teacher,” says Jane. “He really cared that we learned the material, understood it, and could apply it to our lives.”

Jane first got to know Lucier when she took several of his upper-tier economics classes. That bond only strengthened over time. “He has been a mentor to me both professionally and personally.”

Neither Peg nor Jane had a million dollars. But they had plenty of friends who shared their appreciation, and they recruited 30 other Denisonians to recognize the beloved teacher’s contributions by establishing the Richard Lucier Endowed Professorship. What started as a faculty-support fund in his honor soon grew into this $1.5 million endowment.

“It shows what type of teacher he was,” Jane says. “People were coming out of the woodwork wanting to be a part of it. Denison isn't lacking in excellent professors, but I hope it inspires teachers to be as great as he was”