When Dickson Brown, ’71, was considering law schools, one prominent East Coast school told him he was accepted, but there wasn’t much they could give him in the way of financial aid.
Another told him he was accepted, but he should sell his car to help pay his way.
And then there was Michigan.
“Without having to beg, the Law School gave me a very generous scholarship that made it possible to go to law school and very easy to choose Michigan,” says Dickson, who is retired from Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP. “I remember thinking how wonderful it was that the Law School was so supportive.”
Someone like Dickson—smart, eager to learn, and embracing all that the Law School has to offer—is the kind of student the Browns now will help through the Dickson and Dee Brown Endowed Scholarship Fund.
Preference will be given to students who hold undergraduate degrees from U-M, which is a nod to the family’s strong maize-and-blue ties. Dickson and Dee, AB ’70, both earned bachelor’s degrees from U-M, and their son Kincaid (“KC”), ’96, and daughter-in-law Nancy Vettorello, ’97, together hold five Michigan degrees.
“We brought KC to a football game when he was in high school, on a cold, sleety November day,” recalls Dee, who is retired from private practice. “We never thought he would like Michigan, but it was his first choice.”
Dickson and Dee have long been generous donors to the Law School, including a substantial gift to the building fund.
Through the scholarship, they want to make Michigan top of mind for the best students from around the country. They say strong public universities like U-M need more scholarship dollars in order to compete with the large endowments of elite private institutions.
Dickson notes, “The more we can do to make Michigan somebody’s first choice—and make it easier to be their first choice—the better.”
