Challen Fund Established In UB School of Management

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Bruce Challen, a 1930 arts-and-sciences alumnus of the University at Buffalo, has established an undergraduate scholarship in the University at Buffalo School of Management with a bequest of $200,000.

In planning his bequest, Challen expressed a desire to help financially needy students with demonstrated academic potential. His gift will establish an endowment, the income from which will provide partial tuition benefits to one outstanding undergraduate management student per year.

"Through his generous gift, Bruce Challen will be helping talented students of business and management who might not be able to afford higher education," said Frederick W. Winter, dean of the UB School of Management. "The Challen scholarship will contribute to the school's ability to attract outstanding students well into the future."

According to Gail Parkinson, the school's assistant dean for development, Challen decided to set up the scholarship after receiving a call from a UB student during the university's annual appeal in 1990. He was 82 at the time and indicated that he wished to name UB in his will. The scholarship was created with a bequest from Challen's estate when both he and his wife died in 1993.

Challen, who was born and raised in Buffalo, began his business career as a distributor at Kraft Foods in Chicago after graduating from UB. He was fond of saying that he sold the first pound of sliced cheese for Kraft. Challen served in the United States Navy during World War II, then lived in the Virginia Beach, Va., area while working for the U.S. Treasury. He returned to Buffalo in the 1980s.

The first award of the Challen scholarship will be made in Fall 1995.