Frank and Helen Izzi Schilling '54
$6 MILLION PLEDGED BY FRANK AND HELEN IZZI SCHILLING IS THE LARGEST SINGLE GIFT RECORDED IN THE UNIVERSITY’S HISTORY
URI President David M. Dooley calls estate gift "transformational in its impact."
A recently announced $6 million estate gift from Rhode Island native and URI alumna Helen Izzi Schilling ’54 and her husband, Frank Schilling, is the largest in the University’s history. The couple makes their gift with the goal of helping the University of Rhode Island attract and retain the “best and brightest students.”
Their gift will fund the Frank and Helen Izzi Schilling Scholarship Endowment, which will provide four-year assistance to academically high achieving students across all disciplines at URI. The couple funded and created a similar endowment at Mr. Schilling’s alma mater, John Carroll University, located in Ohio.
Scholarship awardees, called “Schilling Scholars,” will be encouraged to contribute back to the fund — to the best of their abilities — an amount equal to their scholarships over their lifetimes. “We’re confident this will attract exactly the type of student we hope would be interested in URI, and vice versa. Encouraging students to give back will help promote the concept of philanthropy while growing the fund considerably,” said Frank Schilling.
David M. Dooley, president of the University, praised the couple, saying: “This gift will truly be transformational in its impact. Our ability to attract and retain the highest caliber students is a key component of our vision for URI’s future, and this extraordinary donation will have a direct and significant bearing on our success.”
“We have been very fortunate,” says Helen Schilling. “With success there is an obligation to give back. I was very pleased with the education that I received at URI. My husband and I want to improve the academic level of the University. The careful design of our gift will provide increasing scholarships forever. The best way we can make an impact with our ‘pay back’ is through education,” notes Frank Schilling. “We want our contribution to help teach students how to think, achieve more and learn to pay back for their success. That will have the most powerful effect on their lives.”
A RHODE ISLAND NATIVE
Though the Schillings presently reside in both Wisconsin and Florida, Helen Schilling’s family came to Rhode Island in the early 1900s and maintains a significant presence in the state still today.
Her father, Mario T. Izzi, immigrated to the United States with his family when he was two years old. He went from sweeping floors as a young boy to obtaining his degree from the Rhode Island School of Design. He was a gifted artist with numerous exhibitions, but earned his living by opening the famous Club Pyramid jazz club and, later, Mario’s Sportsman store, a major boat and motor store on Bald Hill Road in Warwick, Rhode Island. Helen Schilling’s recently deceased mother, Elena (Helen) Perrino Izzi, was an active partner in all of her husband’s endeavors.
THE URI CONNECTION:
The University of Rhode Island was indeed Helen Schilling’s launching pad. She is the eldest of four sisters and she blazed an educational path for her sisters to follow. “I chose URI in 1950 because it was not expensive, though it meant that I had to live at home, earn money and commute by getting rides for the first two years,” she recalls. “But I liked the campus!”
While at URI, Helen Schilling studied nutrition, graduating with honors. She was president of Kappa Omicron Nu and a member of Phi Kappa Phi, both of which are national honor societies. She was also a member of Alpha Xi Delta sorority. All of this while working at Butterfield Dining Hall.
Because of her academic excellence, Helen Schilling was granted acceptance into a highly competitive and rigorous combined Master of Science/Dietetic Internship Certification program at Ohio State University. During her final semester, she met her future husband, who had just entered Ohio State’s M.B.A. program after returning from service in Korea. Helen Schilling worked as the clinical dietitian in a number of hospitals, taught at two universities and developed her own consulting business.
After graduating first in his M.B.A. class, Frank married Helen in Warwick. He was accepted into a General Electric (GE) training program, completing 16 graduate-level certification programs, including one at Harvard and one at Dartmouth, which his wife also attended with him.
Frank Schilling retired as a GE vice president responsible for products from jet engines to CT scanners. After retiring, he directed the growth of other businesses in the U.S., Singapore, Germany and Korea. He was also the founding president of a successful nuclear cardiology company that made and sold heart scanning equipment.
The Schillings’ two children are practicing physicians who have received national recognition in their respective specialties. Their son, a radiation oncologist, has pioneered advances in the treatment of cancer, earning the top national award from his specialty. Their daughter is a leader in rehabilitation medicine in Houston and a respected medical
expert witness.
The Schillings’ gift will result from a charitable remainder trust, which allows a donor to irrevocably transfer assets into a trust. The trust pays income to the donor or other beneficiaries during their lifetimes, and the remainder goes to a qualified nonprofit, in this case, the University of Rhode Island.