Jan. 18, 2024

Scholarship honors parents of Northwest alumnus, commitment to education

A loyal Northwest Missouri State University alumnus is extending his support of the institution through the creation of a scholarship honoring his late parents.

Michael Faust, a 1974 graduate of the University and a member of the Northwest Foundation Board of Directors from 2002 to 2020, established the E.G. and Mary Faust Scholarship. Michael’s father passed away in 2013 and his mother in 2022.

Graduates of Atlantic High School in Michael’s hometown in Atlantic, Iowa, are eligible for the annual scholarship. It was awarded for the first time last fall to Brianna Wilson, a junior elementary and special education major.

“A degree in elementary and special education has been a long-term goal of mine,” said Wilson, who wants to become a special education teacher in an elementary school setting after completing her degree at Northwest. “I’ve always been passionate about children and making a difference in their lives. This scholarship has made funding these goals possible, and I’m very grateful for this opportunity.”

Everett Faust – who went by “Red” and “E.G.” – began his career in radio in Oelwein, Iowa. With several partners, he purchased KJAN Radio in Atlantic in 1955 and rapidly advanced to become the station’s longtime president. During the 1970s, E.G was a co-founder of Cable Communications of Iowa. In 1985, after 30 years with KJAN, he retired and was promptly inducted into the Iowa Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame.

A veteran of the U.S. Army, he was a consummate civic volunteer who served as president of the Atlantic Chamber of Commerce and Atlantic Rotary and commander of his American Legion post. He was founder and president of the Atlantic Industrial Development Corporation. He was a member of the Elks and Veterans of Foreign Wars. He was honored with the Atlantic Jaycees Distinguished Service Award and the American Legion Post 43 Community Service Award.

E.G. also practiced a lifelong hobby, performing his sleight-of-hand comedy magic act. Interestingly, the childhood friend and classmate who interested him in magic was Bill Andres, who became chief executive officer of Target stores.

“Dad was quite good and an in-demand performer across Iowa,” Michael said. “I view the scholarship as a way to create magic for future Bearcats.”

Mary Faust focused on raising the couple’s five children, of which Michael is the oldest, and later began babysitting for several working mothers after the Fausts’ youngest child started grade school.

Neither E.G. nor Mary attended college, but they were firm believers in the value of education, and Michael was the first in his family to earn a degree. Mary put her babysitting earnings into a college savings fund that paid a portion of Michael’s tuition to attend Northwest.

“In her final years, when she began losing her eyesight, I had to ‘pay her back’ by using my accounting degree to manage her finances and file her tax returns,” Michael said.

“As I was closing out my parents’ estate, it occurred to me that my name would be more associated with Maryville, theirs with Atlantic,” Michael said. “For all they’d done for that town, they deserved to be remembered. I diverted part of my inheritance to a scholarship fund that would benefit graduates of Atlantic High School. It is really my parents’ money that is funding the scholarships.”

Michael’s experience at the University had a deep impact on him, and he is among the longest-serving Board members in the Northwest Foundation’s history. He became a committee chair in his first year and was board president from 2008 to 2010. He served as chair of the Advancement Committee during the highly successful Forever Green Campaign.

Michael retired in 2015 after 36 years with Kiewit Corporation, a Fortune 500 international construction and mining firm based in Omaha, Nebraska. As assistant to the chairman, he was a speechwriter to senior executives, contributing editor to the company magazine, an instructor at Kiewit University and manager of the corporate charitable giving program. He was active in community affairs, serving as a director of many non-profits, including United Way of the Midlands, Omaha Community Foundation and the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce. In retirement, he worked in communication consulting and continued to assist Kiewit chairman emeritus Walter Scott Jr., who died in 2021.

Since 2008, Michael has been a director of the Suzanne and Walter Scott Foundation. In 2016, the Scott Foundation inquired about honoring his long service to Mr. Scott, the Northwest Foundation and the Kiewit Corporation and made a $1 million gift toward the expansion and renovation of the Northwest Alumni House. After completion of the project in 2017, the facility was renamed the Michael L. Faust Center for Alumni and Friends in his honor.

Additionally, Michael served Northwest during the 2015-16 academic year as visiting dean of the Melvin D. and Valorie G. Booth School of Business. He also has provided major gifts to the Northwest Foundation in support of the endowed Michael L. Faust Scholarship fund, the Robert and Virginia Foster Fitness Center, a new media lab in Wells Hall, the Carl and Cheryl Hughes Fieldhouse and the Agricultural Learning Center.

“My daily uniform is usually a pair of jeans and a Bearcat polo,” Michael said. “A lot of times when I'm in Hy-Vee a high school student bagging my groceries will notice the logo and say, ‘Oh, I’m considering Northwest,’ at which point they get my two-minute sales pitch. I tell each and every student the same thing: Coming to Northwest was one of the best decisions in my life, and I just want to give high school graduates of today the opportunity to have that same experience that I had.”

For more information about the E.G. and Mary Faust Scholarship or to make a tax-deductible gift to benefit the University, contact Northwest’s Office of University Advancement at 660.562.1248 or visit qd9kvy6.z14z.com/GiveOnline.