PRESS RELEASE

Media Contact: Jim Adams
Phone: 313-927-2341
Email: james.adams@uofdjesuit.org
September 8, 2021
For Immediate Release

University of Detroit Jesuit to Receive $10 Million in Gifts

Donations to endowment are largest estate gifts in school history

DETROIT – University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy announced today it is receiving gifts from the estates of two benefactors totaling $10 million. The two gifts come from the estates of alumnus Dr. Leonard Scherock, class of 1959, and Mr. Nicholas Labedz, a friend of the school. The donations represent the largest estate gifts in the school’s 145-year history. The value of the bequests will create the top two endowed student scholarships at U of D Jesuit.

Leonard Scherock died in April of 2020, at the age of 78. Dr. Scherock had credited U of D Jesuit for laying the foundation of his numerous lifetime achievements. He wanted to leave a legacy so other young men could experience the same life-changing opportunity. After graduating high school, he went on to get his medical degree at Wayne State University School of Medicine. Scherock began his practice in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan where he worked for several decades as a double-board certified doctor in Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine.

Dr. Scherock’s estate gift to the endowment will total $5 million once complete.

Nicholas Labedz, a friend of the school, made the donation through his estate in honor of his lifelong friend and business partner, Richard Mazurek, M.D., a 1954 graduate of U of D Jesuit. Mr. Labedz was a native of Detroit and a long-time resident of southern California. He passed away in May 2019 at the age of 86. Labedz had made it known that he loved the mission of the school and wanted to help students in need. The expected $5 million from his estate will go towards tuition assistance for those students.

“The donations from these two remarkable people strengthen our ongoing renaissance,” said Theodore Munz, S.J., president of U of D Jesuit. “With these gifts our endowment will be stronger, thus allowing us to offer tuition assistance to more deserving young men. The estate gifts, combined with recent donations for our campus expansion and our fiscal stability, indicate that people are eager to invest in Jesuit education in Detroit,” Munz added.

About U of D Jesuit
University of Detroit Jesuit is the oldest continuously operating high school in Detroit. Founded in 1877, it has educated young men to be – “Men for Others” – through academic excellence, faith, character formation, and community service for 145 years. It remains Metro Detroit’s most ethnically, geographically, and culturally diverse school.  Approximately 900 students are enrolled in grades seven through twelve from more than seventy communities in six counties. Nearly 40-percent of its students qualify for tuition assistance totaling $3.5 million annually.

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