Scholarship Dinner Honors Jon Scharfenberger
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- Published on Friday, 07 December 2012 15:48
When Tom Monaghan first envisioned Ave Maria University, he imagined students like Jon Scharfenberger, Mr. Monaghan said Thursday night at a dinner that raised money for the scholarship fund named for the young man who died shortly after graduating AMU in 2011.
"I think I've already been paid many times over by that one life," Mr. Monaghan said, noting that Jon's dedication to the pro-life cause as a student and then as an organizer for the Students for Life organization exemplified how he hoped AMU graduates would be lights to the world.
The young man died in a car accident in Georgia in October, 2011, while returning home to the Washington, D.C., area after speaking at a pro-life conference.
Jon's mother, Anna Scharfenberger (pictured, with Mr. Monaghan), was the main speaker at the dinner put on by the Ave Maria Founder's Club to benefit the scholarship fund, which has received more than $87,000 in donations, according to AMU President Jim Towey.
"Love is stronger than death," Mrs. Scharfenberger said in an emotional address that remembered her son.
"I hope that through the generations, his name will be known in the halls of Ave Maria," Mr. Monaghan said.
The Naples Founder's Club dinner, held annually since Ave Maria University announced it was moving to Florida, traditionally hears from a representative of the Barron Collier Cos., in addition to Mr. Monaghan and, now, AMU President Jim Towey.
Brian Goguen, a Barron Collier vice president, announced that the long-awaited gas station has finally been sold to an operating company and promised it would open by the end of March, 2013. Mr. Goguen also said that real estate developer Jim Carr, who has led the development of the 1,600-home Monterra community in Broward County, "is excited about building homes in Ave Maria." Although there has been no other formal announcement, it is expected that Mr. Carr's company will build houses in the Hampton Village community in Ave Maria.
More than 60 contracts for the sale of other homes in Ave Maria have been written this year, Mr. Goguen said.
Mr. Towey announced at the dinner that AMU's popular dean of faculty, Michael Dauphinais, has been named the school's VP for Academic Affairs, a post he had been filling on an interim basis since the retirement last year of Jack Sites.
Right, the Founder's Club presented Josh Proctor with a special award recognizing an outstanding AMU student.
Below, the AMU Glee Club entertained with a selection of holiday favorites.
