When Mildred Buck came to the University of Colorado, the roaring ‘20s were yet to crash. A “kindly professor of Greek,” George Norlin, was president, and his words were yet to be carved into the façade of the then-unbuilt library that now bears his name.
Since then, pivotal events of the 20th century have ticked by like highway mileposts: the Great Depression, World War II, the baby boom, Korea, the Cold War, Vietnam, Watergate, the Soviet Union’s collapse.
Through it all, Mildred Buck believed in higher education and remained committed to public service. The Mildred Meyer Buck Endowed Scholarship corroborates that.
The scholarship, which is $2,500 per semester for up to five years, is designed “to support and encourage students with outstanding abilities” within the College of Arts and Sciences. Applicants must maintain a grade-point average of 3.75 or higher.
Buck scholarship recipients also engage in “service learning” with an internship program that is served between their sophomore and junior years.
While scholarships that are partly based on financial need are critical, Buck believes it’s also important to provide scholarships based purely on academic merit. “People who have high intelligence are sometimes passed over” for scholarships, she notes.
Jennifer Belknap, a CU senior majoring in Spanish and psychology, is one of many who appreciates the “unexpected and invaluable gift” from Buck.
“The scholarship has encouraged me to pursue excellence in my studies, and has allowed me to have more peace of mind about finances,” Belknap says. “Furthermore, I would not be able to pursue a teaching certificate late in my college career without the scholarship—the award will allow me to take an extra two years of school. I am very grateful to have been the recipient of Mrs. Buck’s generosity.”
A lifelong Coloradan, Buck enrolled at CU in 1926 and studied psychology. Buck turns 100 this month, and neither her ebullience nor her altruism shows signs of dimming.
“The university has been a tremendous influence in our lives, and I’m so happy that I had the time there,” Buck said recently in her Denver home. “I think it was a wonderful inspiration for me. It gave me a vision I had not had before. That goes for my husband as well.”
Mildred “Mims” Buck met her husband, Douglas, at CU. While in college, she also got another lifelong companion: the nickname “Mims.”
She was only 16 when she came to college from East High School in Denver. The College of Arts and Sciences was small compared to today, but big enough in 1926 to feel “overwhelming.”
Buck pledged to Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, which helped her settle in, she said. Sororities were big in those days. “If you got in, it was lovely.” Friends called her “Mims,” because, they said, she didn’t seem like a “Mildred.” The name stuck.
So did her college romance. At the end of her sophomore year, she met her future husband. They were at a dance at a popular Boulder Canyon venue, and “he cut in on me.”
Douglas Buck graduated from the CU business school, and they were married in 1930, at the start of the Great Depression. In his first job, he worked as an investment banker, and “things went from bad to worse,” she recalls.
But Douglas Buck persevered and succeeded. “He was a person with a lot of vision and a lot of drive,” she says. “He did a lot for the university.” He made significant contributions to the business school including a major contribution for the school’s first computer lab at the library.
“My husband was very philanthropic,” Buck observes. In 1986, Douglas and Mims started a small family foundation, The Buck Foundation, whose aim is to support children and youth, women and minorities with a commitment to peace and social justice.
He passed away in 1993. They had been married 63 years. Of her marriage, she says, “I really treasure every minute.” They had three children, and today she has seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
Of her longevity, she adds, “I’m really surprised, because I think I’m the only person on either side (of the family) who made it this far.” She expresses keen interest in events to come within the next month and year.
But she quotes George Burns, who famously said, “At my age, I don’t even buy green bananas.”
Nonetheless, she smiles as she talks about her soon-to-arrive 100th birthday party, slated to be held in Littleton’s Douglas H. Buck Community Recreation Center, another beneficiary of the Buck family’s philanthropy.
To support scholarships within the College of Arts and Sciences, please contact Teresa Chamberland, assistant director of development, CU Foundation, at 303-541-1445, orteresa.chamberland@cufund.org.
Related Articles
‘Water stains: That usually means something, right?’
Watching glacial melt shift into overdrive
