News Home

Rose Zuger establishes major scholarship at Dakota State University

Madison, SD -- A 1928 Alumnus of Dakota State University has endowed a major scholarship to help more South Dakota students attend DSU. Rose Zuger, originally from Bryant, South Dakota now living in Sun City, Arizona, made a gift of $75,000 to create the Rose Hoffman Gammill Zuger Scholarship. The first scholarship awards will be made to students starting school in the fall of 2003.

Zuger (Rose Hoffman then) attended “Madison State Teacher’s College” from 1925 through 1928 while teaching school in Oldham, South Dakota. She went on to teach in Colorado. “I wanted to do something good for Dakota State and Madison,” Rose shared with DSU.  “I feel I learned more about teaching in Madison than I did at all the other schools I attended and I attended some good ones.”

Zuger received her master’s degree from the University of Illinois and became the elementary school principal in Champaign, Illinois from 1963 until she retired.

While in Madison, a high point for Zuger was teaching at the Madison Normal School. There she was encouraged by a redheaded woman who saw Rose’s potential as a great teacher. Teaching the third and fourth graders, the woman told Rose she was pulling her out of that class and putting her with an unruly group of fifth and six graders. When Rose asked why, she was told, “because you can handle them—and the other teacher can’t!”

The DSU Foundation will invest the Scholarship endowment and use its annual earnings to pay for tuition for students selected. Zuger has established criteria that would enable deserving students from South Dakota get their start just as she did in the 1920’s.

“I’ve gotten to know Rose well,” said Rick Smith, DSU Vice President for University Advancement. “She is one of the nicest people you’ve ever met—and one of the best dancers I’ve seen. You would never guess she just celebrated her 96^th birthday! Her gift is so important to us in that it helps us meet our greatest need. We have so many deserving students who would like to come to Madison and start their careers and families—but they need financial help. People like Rose are shaping our future.”

Zuger also hopes to honor her father with the scholarship. She credits him with helping create in her motivation to succeed. “My dad, Nick, often told me, ‘An education is very important for it is one of the few things in life no one can take from you’,” Zuger told DSU. “I want to honor his commitment to education by helping encourage others to invest in their education. I’m willing to do that with my money.

Zuger has a daughter, Jean, and a son, Bob. They have joined their mother in encouraging her to create the Rose Hoffman Gammill Zuger Scholarship. “I’m proud of them,” said Zuger. “They were the one’s that pushed me to go ahead and do this.