Stevenson University recently announced that a Jewish retired faculty member who died two years ago left a $1.3 million bequest to the Owings Mills-based school of more than 2,700 undergraduate students.
The late Gilbert “Gil” Wegad, a Maryland native who died on Mar. 11, 2020, at the age of 98, founded Stevenson’s first program in accounting and served as an adjunct accounting professor there for three decades.
His bequest will be used to increase the endowment for a scholarship he established for Stevenson’s nursing students and to support capital funding needs for campus expansion and improvements.
“Gil was a dedicated educator and advocate for Stevenson for more than 30 years,” said Stevenson University President Dr. Elliot Hirshman. “His commitment to teaching and to student success was an inspiration to his colleagues and the generations of alumni he taught over his remarkable career.”
Wegad, who formerly lived in Pikesville, was a certified public accountant who joined the faculty of Stevenson — founded in 1947 as Villa Julie College — in 1972 to establish an associate degree in accounting program.
He began teaching there in 1974 and continued to work as a CPA during his tenure at Stevenson. He retired in 2003.
In 1998, Wegad established the Bertha G. Wegad, RN Memorial Endowment Fund for Scholarships to Nursing Students, in honor of his late wife of more than 40 years. Bertha Wegad, who passed away in October of 1998, worked at Sinai Hospital as a pediatric nurse.
Gilbert Wegad, who relocated to St. Petersburg, Florida, married Sara Sacks Diamond in 2004. The Wegads kept photos of each year’s scholarship recipient in a place of honor in their residence.
Sara Wegad, a Baltimore native, passed away in October of 2019. Gilbert and Bertha Wegad are buried at Oheb Shalom Memorial Park in Reisterstown.
“We are extremely grateful for his generous spirit and for his abiding love for Stevenson and its students that he demonstrated by establishing this gift to the university from his estate,” said Dr. Hirshman.
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