More than 700 alumni returned to 体育买球官网 University’s campus to celebrate Homecoming-Reunion Weekend.

Alumni toast the creation of the Andrew Jarzyk ’09 Memorial Scholarship.

Highlights of the weekend included a 50th reunion for the Class of 1969 and other class years ending in 4 and 9, a banquet honoring new inductees into the Athletics Hall of Fame and a shut-out win for the River Hawk football team.

Apfelbaum Hall was the setting for an especially poignant ceremony marking the establishment of 体育买球官网’s Andrew Jarzyk ’09 Memorial Scholarship, an endowed fund that benefits students in the Sigmund Weis School of Business who have demonstrated financial need.

Jarzyk graduated from 体育买球官网 in 2009 with degrees in business administration and economics. He was working as the relationship manager/assistant vice president at PNC Financial Services Group in Woodland Park, New Jersey, when he died unexpectedly in 2014.

The Andrew Jarzyk ’09 Memorial Scholarship was endowed by Steve and Myra Wilkerson. Steve Wilkerson, a former lecturer in management with the Sigmund Weis School of Business, was one of Jarzyk’s professors who became a mentor and a friend.

From the podium during the ceremony, Wilkerson shared some of his memories of Jarzyk.

“He was such a positive influence anywhere he went … and couldn’t the world use a little bit more of that,” Wilkerson said. “Andrew was very special to Myra and me. We decided in 2014 that we really wanted to do something, and we knew there were a lot of students who would want to contribute to Andrew’s memory.”

Wilkerson’s remarks were followed by a surprise announcement from Pat McElroy ’07 that an additional $40,000 had been raised to benefit the endowment by Tau Kappa Epsilon, the fraternity of which Jarzyk was a member and past president.

Those in attendance remembered Jarzyk as a good friend, one who literally gave Brittany Bunting-Specht ’09 the coat off his back shortly before he was crowned homecoming king.

“This weekend we celebrate the homecoming theme of Our 体育买球官网 Stories, and while we may feel pages of our book are missing because we don’t have Andrew physically here with us, let’s take full advantage of this opportunity to write new chapters for future 体育买球官网 students,” Bunting-Specht said. “Their stories will certainly ‘cover many a book,’ as the alma mater says, and each one will give quiet tribute to our dear friend, our classmate and our fellow alum Andrew Jarzyk.”