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View donors from 2001-2002 season Alumnus Rosegart Creates Scholarship in Gratitude
Few alumni are as dedicated to the College of Music as Eldon C. Rosegart, of Waterford, Michigan, who recently donated $50,000 to create the Eldon C. Rosegart Endowed Scholarship in Instrumental Music.
From 1939 to 1941, Rosegart was a percussion and string bass student, drum major of the Spartan Marching Band (SMB), and orchestra manager at MSU. He graduated in 1941 with a bachelor’s degree in music theory.
He created the scholarship fund in gratitude for the help and encouragement he received as a student from various faculty members, especially Leonard Falcone, former music department chair, and Alexander Schuster, former orchestra director. In later years, as a member of the MSU Alumni Band, Rosegart credits Kenneth Bloomquist, former Alumni Band director; Dave Catron, former SMB director; and John Madden, current SMB director, for their encouragement, pats-on-the-back, and gracious greetings, all of which, he said, “make his fond MSU memories complete.”
Rosegart hopes the scholarship will attract exemplary student musicians to MSU. Scholarship recipients must be instrumental music majors in winds, percussion or strings ––preferably SMB drum majors who meet the scholarship criteria.
“As both a SMB member in the 1980s and as SMB director in the 1990s, I had the opportunity to watch Eldon twirl his signal baton during halftime shows, when he came back to perform with the MSU Alumni Band,” said John Madden, SMB director. “Eldon would take his twirling to the student section corner of the stadium and become a one-man show. He could singularly get more applause for his twirling than the entire Alumni Band!”
Every fall, Eldon makes the kind gesture of writing a personal letter to both Madden and the entire SMB, congratulating them and wishing them luck for a successful season.
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