By Robb Murray
MANKATO — At just over a million bucks, the Warner Zeno gift to Minnesota State University has the potential to make a lot of local prospective MSU students very happy.
Zeno, who died in January, made substantial donations to Mankato organizations including the Blue Earth Nicollet County Humane Society, the Mankato Masonic Lodge and the Salvation Army.
But Zeno saved his biggest gift for MSU in the hope that deserving kids from Mankato would get a little help in paying for college. An endowment will be set up that will generate about $40,000 annually for scholarships that can only be given to students who hail from the Mankato area.
“We are deeply grateful to Warner A. Zeno for this very generous gift,” MSU President Davenport said. “It is not only a gift to the university, but a gift to the entire Mankato community. The scholarships will benefit deserving Mankato students, and those young people, in turn, are likely to pursue careers in Mankato and become the next generation of leaders for Mankato, the state and the nation.”
Each year, a little more than 100 students from the Mankato Area Public Schools district matriculate at MSU. Another five to 10 come from Loyola High School.
With the Zeno dollars, those numbers could rise.
“Potentially, it could attract some high-achieving kids,” said Brian Jones, MSU’s interim admissions director. “This is going to be a substantial scholarship.”
Nothing’s been decided yet, but Jones said the Zeno funds could be used in a fashion similar to MSU’s Presidential Scholarship, which awards students up to $5,000 annually for four years.
MSU financial aid officials expect application materials for the Warner A. Zeno Family Scholarships to be available in the next several months.
“Gifts such as Mr. Zeno’s are especially important now,” Davenport said. “Difficult economic times make it harder for families to find the money to finance higher education.”
Zeno died earlier this year at age 90. He was a lifelong Mankato resident and founder of the Zeno Glass Co. shortly after he returned from service in World War II.
He graduated from Mankato High School and Dunwoody Institute in Minneapolis, was active in the Masonic Lodge and other service organizations, and operated Zeno Glass until he retired.
