After the untimely death of their son Stephen in 2013, Miami Law alumnus Mark E. Brodsky, JD ’68, and his wife, Nancy, established a scholarship to honor the memory of their late son. The Stephen M. Brodsky Memorial Scholarship is a three-year scholarship for a Division 1 or Division 2 undergraduate athlete admitted to Miami Law.
A gifted athlete, Stephen earned nine varsity letters, played on a conference championship football team, two conference championship lacrosse teams and as a senior captained his high school’s ice hockey team. At Lehigh University, he played football before graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History.
“Steve, notwithstanding his competitive nature, never bragged about his athletic accomplishments,” said Mark Brodsky. “He conducted his personal and business life with integrity, honor, loyalty, and a refined sense of decency and fair play, free of bias or prejudice of any kind.” The scholarship will be awarded by the Dean of the Law School to a recipient based on merit and financial need and the student recipients will be known as Brodsky Scholars.
“I want this scholarship to be awarded to an undergraduate student-athlete because I know, through my son's lifelong involvement in athletics, that prep and college athletes dedicate tremendous amounts of time and energy to those activities, making their academic achievement extraordinary because they have limited study time,” explained Mark Brodsky. “With year-round practices, Steve actually described college athletics as a job.” Mark Brodsky is an attorney and former Holland & Knight partner in their Washington, D.C. office. He is also active in the real estate business as a principal. He was awarded the Law Alumni Association’s Alumni Achievement Award in 2007.
“Everything I accomplished in my professional and business life I attribute to my experience and education at the University of Miami School of Law,” said Brodsky. “My expectations for the scholarship recipients are that they distinguish themselves academically in the same way they did on the playing fields, applying the life lessons that they learned through team sports to their personal, professional, and business lives, both during and after law school.”
