UAS Grace Schaible Endowment Enriches Student Learning and Academic Success
The endowment will support of visiting faculty, scholars, researchers, artists, and Native elders who enrich UAS student learning and academic success.
Date of Press Release: November 28, 2016
Former Alaska Attorney General Grace Schaible’s gift to the University of Alaska Southeast (UAS) from 25 years ago just keeps on giving. In 1989, Ms. Schaible donated her Juneau home -- located along the Mendenhall River -- to the university. For years it has provided housing for visiting scholars and researchers.
Following consultation with Ms. Schaible, UAS recently sold the property and created a new endowment in her name. The Grace Schaible Endowment, with a fund balance of just over $437,000, will support of visiting faculty, scholars, researchers, artists, and Native elders who enrich UAS student learning and academic success. The original fund agreement included a clause regarding sale of the house, which specified that the proceeds be placed into an endowed fund -- its earnings to be used in support of UAS.
Grace Schaible, who today lives in Fairbanks, has led a rich Alaskan life as an attorney, as Alaska’s Attorney General, as a UA regent, and as a trustee of the Alaska Permanent fund. Her parents, immigrants from Scandinavia, were married in Juneau in 1915, where Ms. Schaible spent her childhood. Graduating from high school in 1943, she stayed in Juneau through World War II, working for future territorial governor Frank Heintzleman. She also worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, where she met the first president of the University of Alaska, Charles Bunnell. He encouraged her to move to Fairbanks, but she has maintained strong ties to Southeast Alaska. A fascinating biography on the eclectic life of “Amazing Grace” can be found online at www.news.uaf.edu/amazing-grace, written by Sam Bishop.
UAS Chancellor Rick Caulfield states “we’re excited to honor Grace Schaible’s generosity and her vision of university scholarship here in Southeast Alaska. The new Grace Schaible Endowment will support visiting scholars like Dr. Theresa Arevgaq John, an expert in indigenous ways of knowing, and Dr. Frank Soos, Alaska’s Writer Laureate, both of whom presented at the Juneau campus in October 2016. Grace Schaible is a true Alaskan whose generosity and whose legacy will not be forgotten.”
Chancellor Caulfield notes that Dr. John lived on the UAS campus for a week this fall, interacting with students in classes and special events, and engaging with the broader Juneau community. Her visit culminated with a well-received public presentation at UAS’ Evening at Egan. Caulfield looks forward to using endowment earnings to support future visits by scholars, Native elders, and artists, including those who will enhance the expanding Northwest Coast Arts program at UAS.