We first visited South Africa on vacation in 1998. A number of good things caught our attention including the natural beauty, the delightful and friendly people and the existence of an impressive economic infrastructure. Thanks to the inspired leadership of Nelson Mandela, the black and coloured communities were not focused on revenge for the sins of apartheid, but rather wanted to work with the whites to build a successful, democratic country.

At the same time, we were deeply disturbed by the challenges the country faced including too few well-educated blacks, high unemployment, a lot of violent crime and a somewhat ignored AIDS epidemic. This experience led us to the design and eventually the creation of the Gallagher Foundation. Since the people of South Africa provided us with the inspiration, it was only right that their country be the location of our initial scholarship program.

In selecting our university in South Africa, we were looking for a number of characteristics including a strong faculty, good facilities, success in educating black people from disadvantaged backgrounds and an environment that was both stimulating and safe for our scholars. The University of Cape Town (UCT) emerged as our clear choice, being perhaps the finest university in the country. Professor Martin West has been very helpful in serving as our primary contact. Martin is the Deputy Vice Chancellor and has a role that is the equivalent of the provost position at an American university. To find out more about UCT, please refer to their website at www.uct.ac.za.

University of Cape Town

The Career Wise organization visits high schools throughout South Africa in order to identify students who are deserving of scholarships. We are one of their clients. They present to our representatives, each year, about ten candidates from which we select five. In addition, they have regular contact with our scholars throughout the year to ensure they are receiving the support they need. Monique Adams is the founder of this excellent organization and is our account manager. She is ably supported by Margaret Bennetts, who handles most of the contacts.

Our first group of scholars began their studies in the Spring of 2002.  Our sixth group of scholars was chosen by Dave Schroenn in September 2006 and will begin their studies in early 2007.  Currently, there are 23 Gallagher Scholars at the University of Cape Town.  In addition, there are 9 Gallagher scholars who have graduated.  We are very pleased with the scholars, for they show great potential and we hope that during the next 50 years they will make wonderful contributions to South Africa.  It has been a delight to interact with these talented and interesting young people.

Mike Moore has been an essential part of the successful launch of the Foundation’s program in South Africa. He and his wife, Carol, have been friends of ours for many years. Among the things they have done for the Foundation include introducing us to a number of their South African friends, letting us use Mike’s office for interviews, selecting the scholars, traveling with us in our various journeys within South Africa, and funding a scholarship. Their help has been invaluable.

Carol & Mike Moore

In the last few years, Dave and Carol Schroenn have been critically important to our program.  In 2005, they met with our existing South African scholars and helped select the new ones.  For 2006, Dave handled all the meetings by himself after illness caused the other Foundation representatives to cancel.  His experience as a business executive and active school Board member has been particularly helpful in identifying potential leaders.

Carol &Dave Schroenn