Charles O’Malley Trust leaves lasting impact on UNMC

You’ve never seen anyone so happy to realize the money’s all spent.

"The three of us have been talking about how lucky we are," Brian O’Malley said, "and how much this would have meant to Uncle Chuck."

This was at a recent celebration marking the decade-plus extraordinary partnership between the College of Allied Health Professions and the Charles R. O’Malley Charitable Lead Trust.

The "three of us" Brian O’Malley referred to are he, Neal Brown and Richard Kelly, the trust’s trustees. Charles R. O’Malley — Uncle Chuck — was a colorful character who made a fortune, and then tasked his nephews, both blood and honorary, with giving it away.

The trustees gave a good chunk of it, gladly, to the College of Allied Health Professions at UNMC. It transformed the college.

"The enduring impact has created waves throughout the college," Brian Anderson of the University of Nebraska Foundation said.

"Your impact is going to be felt for generations," said Dele Davies, MD, senior vice chancellor for academic affairs.

"It’s a remarkable thing you all have done for us," Kyle Meyer, PhD, dean of the college, said.

The Charles R. O’Malley Charitable Lead Trust has fulfilled its commitments to directly fund $400,000 in scholarships and $500,000 in endowed professorships.

But the O’Malley Trust also gave $1 million more in matching funds for student scholarships and $750,000 in matching funds for endowed professorships. That means the college was able to leverage O’Malley Trust dollars to attract additional benefactors, with the promise that their donations would be doubled.

"It’s with a truly joyful and grateful heart that I stand here today," said D.J. Thayer, representing the Thayer family, whose $500,000 donation to endow UNMC allied health scholarships turned into a $1 million fund, with a $500,000 O’Malley Trust match.

With direct and matching funds, and monies attracted by that match, the O’Malley Trust has had a total impact of $4.2 million dollars on the college.

The O’Malley Trust has been instrumental in the establishment of six named professorships at the college and seven named, endowed scholarship funds. These scholarships were established as part of the University of Nebraska "Our Students, Our Future" Initiative.

Gracie Grote, a diagnostic medical sonography student at the Health Science Education Complex in Kearney, is a single mother who recently lost her own mother. Receiving an O’Malley Scholarship was life-changing.

"It reminds me there are people out there who believe in me," she said.

Physician assistant student Yaneli Partida plans to use her O’Malley-matched Benschoter Scholarship to give back to the community. "I speak Spanish," she said, "and I want to help those who usually don’t have a voice."

A total of 78 O’Malley directly-funded or matched scholarships have been awarded to allied health students. Because the scholarship funds are now endowed, future O'Malley scholarships will continue to be awarded. Dr. Meyer said, "These funds exist in perpetuity."

Trustee Richard Kelly worked for years at UNMC as supervisor of nuclear medicine and was a teacher, colleague and friend to allied health faculty member Jim Temme. Through this friendship, Temme came to know Charles O’Malley and became close enough to call him Uncle Chuck.

It was fitting that the O’Malley Trust endowed the Charles R. O’Malley Chair for Radiation Science Technology Education at UNMC, with Temme as its inaugural chair.

But that was merely the beginning of the relationship between the trust and the college. As the trustees learned more  about the college and its work, about its students, faculty, staff and those they serve, about their fellow donors — they wanted to give more. They felt fortunate to do so. Uncle Chuck, "He made us into accidental philanthropists," Brian O’Malley said.

No longer, Dr. Meyer said. Now, they are simply lifelong friends.