Dr. Florence Jessup was a beloved Spanish professor at Butler from 1966 to 1996. Today, thanks to the collective efforts of her family and friends, her legacy lives on through the Florence Jessup Memorial Study Abroad Fund. Established in 2022, the fund supports students with financial need studying abroad through Butler’s faculty-led Semester in Spain program. During Butler’s Day of Giving February 28-29, Jessup’s family and friends combined their giving, using challenges to successfully inspire 119 donors to give to the fund during the annual event.
Jessup’s love of Spain and the Spanish language were fanned into flame through her own study abroad experience as a junior in college. Her children said when they first discussed the idea of establishing a study abroad fund in her memory, it felt like the perfect tribute.
“We talked a little bit about what to do, and when this idea materialized, we thought, ‘That’s the answer,’” says Jessup’s daughter, Liz. “She loved teaching and sharing her love of all things Spanish with her students. The ability to help someone study in Spain would have brought her joy.”
For the recent Day of Giving, Jessup’s family and friends pooled their gifts to offer a challenge to inspire others to contribute to the fund. Their initial goal of 25 gifts was reached by mid-morning, unlocking $10,000 for the fund. The challenge was extended into the afternoon, and another 10 gifts unlocked an additional $10,000 for the fund. A third and final challenge matched additional gifts dollar-for-dollar up to $10,000 more. After all Day of Giving contributions were tallied, donors had given over $110,000 to the fund.
“We’re trying to create a legacy in her memory, and it helps to further something that she loved,” Jessup’s son, Jon, says. “It could make the difference for someone who might not be able to study in Spain otherwise. We reached out to friends, family, and our networks, and people saw that it was a good cause and responded.”
Along with her teaching responsibilities, Jessup served in numerous leadership roles during her time at Butler, including as Chair of the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures from 1984 to 1991, and as Acting Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences from 1989 to 1990. Jessup used her leadership at Butler to instigate gender pay equality and to establish the Modern Languages Center, which still exists at Butler today.
Butler Spanish Professor Dr. Linda Willem first met Jessup in 1987 and says she was a dear mentor and friend. Willem has led Butler’s Semester in Spain program seven times and says the fund is a perfect way to honor Jessup.
“While Florence was at Butler, our department didn’t have its own study abroad program in Spain, so she had to send students there on programs from other universities,” Willem says. “But after she retired and moved to Madrid, she was absolutely delighted to meet with the group of Butler students I took on our first Semester in Spain program in 2003. I can still see her leading them through the streets of Madrid to her favorite café, where she treated everyone to copious samples of traditional Spanish dishes. Her generosity has now extended far beyond that day. I’m very pleased that her legacy lives on in this memorial fund.”
As an endowed fund, the Jessup Memorial Fund will exist in perpetuity at Butler. With the help of Day of Giving contributions, the fund will generate around $8,000 to support students participating in the program next year. Jessup’s children hope the fund will continue to grow.
“We’ve heard from so many of her former students about what a valuable experience they had being in her classroom,” Liz says. “We’d be delighted if anybody who remembers her contributes. We want to keep going; we’re not done yet.”
Memorial contributions can be made to the Florence Jessup Memorial Study Abroad Fund at butler.edu/gifts.
day of giving 2024
Thank you to all of our 2024 Day of Giving donors! Your collective generosity is making a difference in the lives of our students every day. This year we raised a total of $653,670 from 2,401 unique donors. This is nearly 800 more gifts than last year and an increase of more than $150K over last year!
- Alumni Donors: 789
- First-time Donors: 588
- Gifts: 2,594 (you could think of this as “transactions”)
- Our first-time donors accounted for nearly $82K or 12.5% of our total dollars this year
- The most supported fund by dollars raised was The Butler Fund for Student Scholarship—$136,919
- The Cheerleading Gift Fund won the challenge for the most athletic team funding raised with over $27K
- More than $18.5K was raised for the Fund to Support Student Mental Health and $12K for the Ayres Student Assistance Fund