Helping students: A wish fulfilled

The Victor and Joan Brown MS Accounting Fellowship

Joan and Victor Brown PhD '57

In fall 2022, Justin Zulewski BS '22 will start the University at Buffalo's MS in Accounting program holding the newly endowed Victor and Joan Brown MS Accounting Fellowship.

It's a good match. Justin says he has been in love with accounting since he was a freshman in high school.

Victor Brown PhD '57 spent the last 10 years of his career writing the rules of financial accounting. He was one of the seven members of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, which sets accounting rules for public and private companies and nonprofits in the United States.

The fellowship that memorializes Victor and Joan's legacy and enthusiasm for the University at Buffalo is actually a family affair.

Victor and Joan met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the early 1950s. Victor, the bright, ambitious son of an awning maker, was a scholarship student at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business. He was finishing a master's degree.

Joan was a laboratory assistant who'd recently moved to Philadelphia from Atlantic City, New Jersey. Her father was a postal worker.

Victor and Joan married and moved to Buffalo, New York, where Victor enrolled in the economics doctoral program at the University at Buffalo. After he received his PhD and served a stint as the chair of the finance department in the School of Management, the couple left for New York City. Victor began what became a notable business career. They had three children—Cynthia, Douglas and Paul.

Scholarship recipient Justin Zulewski BS '22

Later in life, Victor and Joan established a donor advised fund for their philanthropy and, in 2000, started supporting the University at Buffalo accounting students with annual scholarship gifts. After Victor passed in 2006, Joan continued making annual gifts until her passing in 2020. They left the responsibility of distributing their philanthropic funds to their children.

"We knew our parents' wishes about what organizations they'd like to support," says Paul Brown. One was the the University at Buffalo MS in Accounting program. So the family decided to endow a generous fellowship for the program.

"I think their time in Buffalo was magical for them in multiple ways," Paul says. "Their wish to support the University at Buffalo students was, in part, a way for them to celebrate those days."

Paul particularly remembers his mother's tales of helping Victor with his dissertation, typing and editing hundreds of pages of words and graphics. He says they were always a team.

"Having the fellowship in both their names is appropriate in all ways," Paul says.

Cassie Nguyen, assistant chair of the University at Buffalo's Department of Accounting and Law, is excited to have this new financial resource for attracting top accounting students to the master's degree year.

"This endowment will truly make a difference in the lives of our accounting students," Nguyen says. "We all owe a heartfelt thank you to the Brown family."

The practical result of the Brown family's generosity for Justin Zulewski is that when he begins his graduate year, he can back off the hours he's been working at a local BJ's Wholesale Club and devote that time to accounting. He plans to qualify for the CPA exam and start his career with one of the local accounting firms.

"For me personally," Justin says, "it's big!"

Your estate plan is a powerful way to show your love for your favorite institutions, such as the University at Buffalo. To learn more about ways a gift in your estate plan can make a difference for our students, contact Wendy Irving, Esq. at (877) 825-3422 or dev-pg@buffalo.edu today.