WESTFIELD — A Westfield State University alumnus has offered to create a $100,000 student scholarship fund if ex-president Evan Dobelle drops his lawsuits against the school.
John Walsh, owner of skin care company Elizabeth Grady Co., says Dobelle will accept the offer “if he has the best interests of students at heart.”
Walsh said at yesterday’s trustees meeting that he wanted to start a scholarship fund last year, but lost confidence in Dobelle’s leadership amid state investigations into his spending on travel, hotels, restaurants, limousines and other items. Dobelle, who resigned in November, defended the spending as necessary to promote the school.
Dobelle sued, saying he was forced out.
Walsh says legal fees are “bleeding the school.”
Dobelle’s lawyer calls Walsh’s offer is a “silly PR stunt.”
Walsh was born in Cambridge and raised in public housing projects in Somerville, just a short T ride from Boston. He graduated from high school in 1973 and enrolled at Westfield State in 1975, but had to leave after two years, only to return and receive his bachelors degree in Liberal Arts in 2009.
He started at Elizabeth Grady as a salesman, and credits WSU for his life’s many successes, which are now branching out to industries like film and real estate.
“It was the greatest experience of my life coming here,” he said. “It’s totally changed my life. It opened up my mind, enlightened my thought process. It’s made me wealthy, not financially, but educationally, morally, and compassionately.”
“For a kid from a housing project who thumbed his way to school, didn’t have enough money for a sub or a six-pack of beer, this place was like a sanctuary for me. It was trees, Stanley Park, not a brick jungle,” he said, adding that whenever he passes through Westfield, he visits his old room in Davis Hall and gives room F31’s current residents $100 to treat themselves.
“With that said, in 2012 and 2013, I was totally discouraged by what was going on and what I was reading,” said Walsh. “I was of the opinion that some of the administration, some of the faculty, some of the board, prostituted their principles for politics or their own personal gain.”
Walsh said that he sought out Board Chair John Flynn III and Board Finance Committee Chair Kevin Queenin, and that he “interogated” them on the situation at the university at that time.
“I told them ‘I’m not going to donate. I’m not doing anything up there’ and they educated me,” he said. “But I’m really encouraged now, by the board, by the administration that’s in place.”
“If Evan Dobelle has what he professes he has – the best interests of the college and it’s students – then he’ll drop the lawsuit against this board and apologize for making a mistake,” Walsh said. “And if he does that, I’ll contribute $100,000 to a scholarship fund and seek to raise additional funds.”
“What better lesson can you teach kids about integrity, morals, and making this wrong right? I have the confidence again (in this school), and I’m encouraging other alumni to go ahead and participate, but I’m also asking Evan Dobelle to walk away,” he said.
After the meeting, Walsh further clarified his donation.
“I’m going to donate it into something I know is seperate and administered, and set it up with two guys I went to school with from eastern Massachusetts, two guys from western Massachusetts, and two guys from central Massachusetts, for students that are in need,” he said. “I would insist that it’s not going to whoever’s in the top of their class. I’d rather have it go to someone who’s just getting by, that is going to help them go to the top of their class. It’s not based on someone’s background. It’s based on need.”
Walsh quoted poet Ellen Wheeler Wilcox when asked what he would say to Dobelle if the ex-president neglected to respond to his challenge and drop the suit.
“To sin by silence, when we should protest, makes cowards out of men,” he said, adding that he hasn’t spoken to Dobelle in several years, but that he placed a call to him several months back which went unreturned.
