Utica College announces school’s largest ever endowed scholarship as it dedicates Wilcox Center

UTICA, N.Y. — Utica College has its largest-ever endowed scholarship with a donation of $2 million from the estate of Francis A. Wilcox.

Utica College President Laura Casamento on Wednesday announced the scholarship as the college dedicated the Francis A. Wilcox Intercultural and Student Organization Center.

The Francis A. Wilcox Fellowships will provide scholarships of $5,000 annually for 20 students: 10 traditional undergraduate students matriculating directly from high school, six returning or resuming undergraduate studies, and four graduate students. The Utica College office of financial aid will administer the scholarships following one year of vesting, the school said.

The Wilcox estate also paid for the $900,000 renovation of the former Newman Community Center, which is now the Wilcox Intercultural and Student Organization Center. It offers students space for gathering, meeting, studying, or just relaxing, Utica College said.

The 3,500-square-foot building includes a room with a fireplace and large flat-screen TV, speakers, a full kitchen, and an outdoor patio where students can convene around an outdoor gas fireplace. The venue also includes individual meeting/study rooms.

The building will also be home to the Women’s Resource Center, a student organization dedicated to the empowerment of women through education, mutual support, and growth. In addition, the building will serve as home base for two members of Utica College’s diversity, equity and inclusion division.

Members of Francis Wilcox’s family joined Casamento for the formal opening. They included his brother and sister-in-law, Jim and Mary; his sister, Marilyn Keehle; his nephew, Kevin Keehle, and his wife, Susan, who graduated from Utica College in 2007.

The donation to Utica College isn’t the only significant gift that the Wilcox estate has made to institutions of higher learning in the Utica area in 2021.

SUNY Polytechnic Institute (SUNY Poly) in July announced that the Wilcox estate had donated a total of $1.9 million to the SUNY Poly Foundation — representing the largest individual donor contributions in the institution’s history.

Wilcox, who worked as an electrical engineer, lived in East Utica his entire life and “desired to make an impactful mark on the lives of students,” per the July SUNY Poly news release.