Gary and Marsha Bertrand Foundation Scholarship

Marsha and Gary Bertrand were raised in a modest, small Illinois farming community of 1400 people. Today, the Austin, Texas, couple is committed to supporting young people in similar economic circumstances through gifts to their alma maters.

Marsha, who graduated in 1970 from SIU with an associate’s degree in business, is a freelance writer with expertise in investment, finance, and business-related topics. Her work has been published in a variety of newspapers and magazines, and she is the author of four books: The Consumer Guide to the Stock Market, A Woman’s Guide to Savvy Investing, and Fraud! How to Protect Yourself from Schemes, Scams, and Swindles and Getting started in Investment Clubs.

Gary was in the Air Force stationed in Thailand and then South Carolina. While in South Carolina, Gary enrolled at the University of South Carolina, completing courses at night toward his accounting degree. After college, Gary was in banking for 10 years, and subsequently purchased a Chicago-based company that specialized in glued magazine inserts for publications, such as Time, Newsweek, and Reader’s Digest. He sold his company in 1994.

Their scholarship is for middle-income families, which is the environment in which they were raised. “Several scholarship programs are in place to support low-income families. And those with high income don’t require such support. Marsha and I have been fortunate to enjoy success through our careers and various investments. We don’t have any children, so we decided it was best to provide scholarship support for our schools.”

This fund was established by the Gary and Marsha Bertrand Foundation of Orlando, Florida. This scholarship is awarded to undergraduate students with at least a 2.5 GPA (on a 4.0 scale). The parent or guardian of an eligible recipient must fall within a designated range of the Southern Illinois regional median income.