Cairns Legacy

As a high school English teacher, William Cairns '95 came to Viterbo University to earn six credits so he could renew his teaching license. The two-week summer graduate class he registered for wasn't a good fit, and Cairns was in over his head. He thought about quitting, but Jack Havertape, Academic Vice President, urged him to stick with it. "He said, 'We'll help. We haven't lost one yet,'" Cairns recalled.

Now retired, Cairns never forgot that encouragement or the professors who helped him develop as a master teacher. "I have a really warm feeling about Viterbo," he said. "It was just really a lot of good people who helped me realize that what you do and how you help people has a big effect."

In planning for his estate, Cairns decided he wanted to help others have what he called "the Viterbo experience." His will includes a provision to establish a scholarship endowment. "If I can help somebody along the way to have a similar experience to what I had at Viterbo, then I want to do that."