Emme Family Scholarship

The Emme Family Scholarship was established by Jeff and Kelly Emme. They wanted to give back to the University (and town) that helped lay the foundation for Jeffs career in tax and accounting and to honor former accounting faculty member Phil Neal, who inspired Jeff to pursue a career in tax.

Jeff graduated from SIUC in 1980 with a BS in Accounting. He also has a Master of Tax from DePaul University and held the position of Senior Vice President-Tax at Sara Lee Corporation. Both Jeff and Kelly’s parents were long-time residents of Carbondale. Jeff and Kelly both graduated from Carbondale Community High School and Jeff’s father Harold taught there for over 30 years.

Harold Emme graduated from SIUC in 1962 with a bachelor’s degree in Education and in 1964 he received his Masters, also from SIUC. Harold was a member of SIUC’s Saluki basketball team in 1958 and 1959. Carol Emme, Jeff’s mother, returned to college after raising Jeff and his sister Beth and received a degree from the SIU College of Business in 1979. Carol then worked at SIU in Financial Affairs for 17 years before retiring in 1996.

Beth (Emme) Burns graduated from the University of Illinois in 1984 but her degree included attending a Phil Neal business class at SIUC in 1982. Kelly’s father Richard Craig worked as an air traffic controller at the SIUC Airport from 1975 thru 1980.

Given the significance of SIU and the town of Carbondale to Jeff, Kelly, and their families, they have a desire to pay forward the benefits they have realized and are doing so by establishing this Emme Family Scholarship Endowment.

• Scholarship for students from Carbondale Community HS with a major in the College of Business & Analytics.
• Recipients must have demonstrated financial need, as determined by the SIU Financial Aid Office.