The Frank Navarro Scholarship Fund
It was, thought Ben Navarro, the perfect birthday gift for his father. And he was right: when Frank Navarro of Charlestown, R.I., learned that his son Ben, the CEO of Sherman Financial Group in Charleston, S.C., had funded a scholarship at the University of Rhode Island in his honor, he was “speechless.”
“It was definitely the best present I ever had in my life,” said the senior Navarro, who before retirement coached football at Princeton, Wabash, Columbia, and Williams. “I was always inspired by my father,” Ben commented, “and this is the best tribute I could possibly give him.”
The icing on the cake came on March 29, 2005, when the Navarros, including Ben’s young sons Earl and Owen, met the first Navarro scholarship recipient— URI sophomore Kelly Burke, an accounting major who, as the scholarship stipulates, graduated from Westerly High School (the scholarship is also open to Chariho graduates) in the top third of her class. Kelly needed financial assistance to attend college and, as the scholarship also requires, she is enrolled in the College of Business Administration.
The meeting took place on campus at the University Club at one of President Carothers’ spring luncheons for donors and scholarship winners.
“The luncheon was a wonderful opportunity for me to put faces with the names of my benefactors,” said Kelly. Ben and Frank Navarro were equally delighted to meet her and spoke enthusiastically of following her future career.
“The scholarship enables me to really concentrate on academics,” said Kelly, who lived on campus and played rugby her freshman year and who now commutes from Westerly where she has a part-time job as a receptionist in a beauty salon.
As long as Kelly maintains at least a 3.0 grade point average, she will receive the yearly stipend of $4,000 until she graduates. The scholarship, says Kelly, who “loves crunching numbers” and plans to qualify as a C.P.A. and work in a private accounting firm after graduation, is a great incentive to stay on top of her studies.
“We hope to fund a new winner every four years,” said Ben Navarro. “And perhaps in the future, we can fund two students who overlap at URI.”
Ben, the 6th of eight children, was one of five Navarro brothers to graduate from URI—the others include Damon ’76, Kenneth ’79, Edmund ’82, and PT ’91.
Ben majored in finance and, like Kelly, also worked on the side to cover his college expenses, although in his case, he established his own business selling discount cards to local businesses to his fellow students.
“Kelly is my window on URI today,” Ben commented. He and Kelly are both impressed with the renovated Ballentine Hall, although, unlike Ben, Kelly was unfamiliar with the original building. At the end of their meeting, Ben was quick to assure her that “there is nothing that you cannot do with a URI education. Ultimately, your success in life will depend on what you do with the education you have received here.”
By Vida-Wynne Griffin ’67, M.A. ’73
