An Ultimate Gift, A Lasting Legacy

Scher/Giuliano endowed scholarship to benefit pre-med, business students

By Holly Neumann | Illustration by Dan Williams

In life, Rony Scher Giuliano ’71 was a businesswoman, mentor, animal lover and devoted friend. In death, she is also remembered as a great benefactor to the University that gave her some of her greatest years.

Giuliano, who died in 2016, left a multi-million-dollar gift to UT, received last year, that is now realized as the Scher/Giuliano endowed scholarship for pre-med and business students.

In naming UT in her will, Giuliano provided what Schezy Barbas, assistant vice president of development and university relations, calls her “ultimate gift.” Scholarships awarded will be pulled from the interest on Giuliano’s donation, creating a lasting legacy that will benefit generations of UT students.

“Her time at UT impacted her in a really amazing way,” Barbas said. “And so she wanted to make sure that she gave back. When someone includes UT in their final plans, we’re truly honored.”

Barbas said that joining UT’s Legacy Society provides a way for donors to give upon death, like Giuliano. This year, Legacy Society members were recognized in April at an on-campus luncheon and ceremony.

Giuliano’s UT experience was marked by her membership in the Delta Phi Epsilon sorority. A friend and the executor of her estate, Doug Branch, said she “always talked about the wonderful time she had there with her girlfriends.”

Giuliano, then Rony Scher, held leadership positions within DPhiE. She was secretary of her 1969 pledge class and was rush chairman in 1971, the year DPhiE did not participate in the homecoming display competition, instead voting to donate the money they would have spent to a cystic fibrosis charity.

After graduation, Giuliano returned to her native New York and went on to a lifelong career in the direct mail industry. That’s how she met Branch, who said Giuliano was a mentor. She worked for several companies over the years and participated in industry professional organizations and boards. Later, she owned her own direct mail business with her husband, Ed Giuliano. Ed died soon after they married.

Branch said Giuliano didn’t have much free time — she was very dedicated to her career, and owning her own business kept her busy. He said she credited her work ethic to her father, who had been a doctor on Long Island. The two were very close, Branch said, and that father-daughter relationship accounts for her instructions that the scholarship be open to pre-med majors in addition to business students.

Giuliano also cared deeply about animals, especially her own pets, which Branch said are what made her laugh.

Branch says he misses Giuliano’s friendship. “She was always upbeat, even when she wasn’t feeling good in the last few years of her life,” he said.

“She should be remembered as someone who appreciated UT more than anything in this world,” Branch said. “It gave her the most joy, I think, out of her whole life.”

If you would like to learn more about the Legacy Society and planned giving, you can reach Schezy Barbas at (813) 258-7480 or sbarbas@ut.edu.