Lloyd Straits and his wife, Ruth, have made a planned gift to endow a scholarship at the University of Miami Patti and Allan Herbert Business School, opening doors to opportunity for future generations of students.
As a student at the University in the early 1960s, Straits was grateful for the support of his parents, for whom education was of the utmost importance and had the financial resources to pay for it. Their generosity left him and his future wife, Ruth, debt-free when they got their degrees.
“It is quite extraordinary when you think about it,” explained Straits. “My father was born in 1894, and my mother in 1904. It was a time when many people didn’t even finish high school, let alone college. My father became an attorney, and my mother had a master’s degree in fine arts from Columbia University. They had me very late in life and were set financially, so they could pay for my education—and help my wife Ruth as well.”
Straits said his parents’ example prompted him and his wife to fund a scholarship for students at the Miami Herbert Business School. The Lloyd A. and Ruth L. Straits Scholarship Fund will eventually be endowed through a planned gift the Straits made back in 2005. Since then, they’ve twice increased the value of the planned gift.
“We have no children, and this is our opportunity to help young people the same way my parents helped the two of us,” said Straits, who graduated from the University in 1965. “I truly credit my education as a business school student at the University of Miami with all the success I’ve had in my professional life.”
Straits spent most of his career in international finance, first with two prominent New York City banks and later in various management positions with Northrop Grumman. Now retired, he and Ruth divide their time between homes in Montana and Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
As Straits contemplates his and Ruth’s legacy at the University, he thinks about the students who will eventually benefit from their generosity. “As our investments have grown and more resources became available, we wanted to ensure that our scholarship would make a financial difference for business school students.”
