The Jason Howe Endowed Scholarship Fund will support a graduate student every year in perpetuity
Jason Howe
He had two siblings of his own, but Jason Howe (MBA 2013) wanted to be everybody’s big brother.
“He wanted to take care of his family,” said Tim Howe, Jason’s father. “He wanted to be that person who you could always go to, who could be relied upon, who was willing to do whatever he could for his family and friends.”
Jason died unexpectedly in January 2021, at only 33 years old, but his legacy of generosity did not. The Jason Howe Endowed Scholarship Fund will support graduate students at the Daniels College of Business in perpetuity.
Dozens of alumni, friends and relatives chipped in to raise $50,000, a percentage of which will be disbursed every year, honoring Jason, Alyse Ware’s loyal, kind, charismatic son.
“He touched everyone he met in some way,” Ware said, “whether it was a friend, a friend of a friend or a business associate.”
Stuart Zall, right, and Vivek Choudhury sign a formal agreement establishing the Jason Howe Endowed Scholarship Fund
That includes Stuart Zall (BSBA 1984), Jason’s former boss at The Zall Company, where Jason was known as a visionary and a bright young talent with a knack for the commercial real estate industry.
“The guy had a heart of gold and an incredible ability to find deals, stuff that I would look at and say was crap,” Zall said. “When Jason passed away, I thought, ‘What can we do for Jason that’s meaningful to him, and meaningful to me as well?’”
He found the answer in a phone call to Aimee Mandolini, executive director of development at the Daniels College of Business. A scholarship in Howe’s honor would require raising $50,000 in three years. With Mandolini’s help, Zall did it in two.
In August, a small group of family and friends gathered in the new Marion J. Crean Collaboratory at the Burns School of Real Estate and Construction Management, lifting champagne glasses to Jason, Zall and the College. They smiled as they looked through a collage of photos, displayed on the Collaboratory’s arc of LCD screens. Zall and Vivek Choudhury, dean of the Daniels College of Business, signed the formal agreement, crystalizing the memorial scholarship.
“I feel a sense of gratitude, seeing a family turn tragedy into something meaningful,” Choudhury said after the signing. “How can we tangibly honor his memory in a way that’s enduring? When you endow a scholarship, it’s not just for the time that the recipient spends at DU. The legacy lives on for every student that receives it, over the span of their whole career.”
For Jason’s parents, the scholarship has been an emotional step forward in their grieving process, Tim Howe said. It’s been easy to focus on the loss, especially at holiday dinners and on the golf course, “but then you start thinking about all the things you do have,” he said. “And this is one of those in the plus column. This is something that’s good that came out of something really tragic.”
Alyse Ware agreed. Telling her friends and coworkers about the endowment has filled her heart with pride.
“Jason was so, so proud of his MBA. He loved everything about DU—the campus, the people, the professors,” she said. “This is a very special day because Jason’s name will live on forever.”
Jason Howe’s family and relatives pose for a photo at a ceremony establishing the endowed scholarship fund.